


The True Glory.

by steeleye



Series: Troopers. [3]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/F, Horror, Humour, Science Fiction, xover fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-05 07:09:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 37,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18823663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: Once again, Sgt Buffy Summers and Cpl Harmony Kendal find themselves fighting for freedom, self determination and the Terran Way. This time the true horror of what the Bugs have done on JF-2698-5 is beyond imagining!





	1. Chapter 1

The True Glory.

By Dave Turner.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Robert Heinlein's 'Starship Troopers'. I write these stories for fun not profit.

 **Crossover:** Robert Heinlein's 'Starship Troopers'.

 **Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar:** Written in glorious English-English which is different to American-English.

 **Timeline:** The third and final story in the 'Troopers' series.

 **Words:** Thirteen chapters of 2500+ words.

 **Warnings:** “BUGS! Like totally thousands of them...much!”

 **Summary:** Once again, Sgt Buffy Summers and Cpl Harmony Kendal find themselves fighting for freedom, self determination and the Terran Way. This time the true horror of what the Bugs have done on JF-2698-5 is beyond imagining!

0=0=0=0

**JF-2698-5, March, 2203.**

“My name is Kiri Chattopadhyay,” the young woman told herself as she made her way from her sleeping hut to the feeding hut, “I'm seventeen years old and I'm a human-being, I am not an animal!”

Although she told herself this each and every morning, as the days past it was getting harder and harder for her to believe.

The bugs had attacked Ahmadnagar when she was thirteen; Kiri could remember the day clearly even now. It was a bright, warm morning and she'd just met up with her best friend, Sandra. They were walking to school when the first meteor hit and took out most of central Dabhoi, the city where they lived. After that her memories were a jumbled blur of explosions and fire and panicking people and finally bugs. Somewhere in all that death and destruction she'd lost Sandra, one moment her friend had been there lying next to her, sheltering in a crater and holding her hand. When next Kiri had looked, Sandra had gone, vanished as if she'd never existed.

The bugs had hit Ahmadnagar hard and fast on the same day the Federation had started its attack on Klendathu. Of course at the time Kiri hadn't known this, she'd only found out about the coincidence sometime after the bugs had put her in 'The Camp'. They'd hit so hard and effectively that the planetary defences had hardly had enough time to get off more than one or two shots at the bug ships in orbit before they too were destroyed. After that there seemed to be bug warriors everywhere shooting down people or herding them towards the collection points.

Almost everyone had eventually been thrown into the food processors. You had to hand it to the bugs, they really were organised; in less than a week they'd conquered the planet and turned most of the population into rations for their workers and warriors...nearly one-hundred-and-sixty-nine-million people gone in just over six days. Again Kiri hadn't known this at the time she'd only found out about it later.

Of course some people must have escaped the cities and got away into the interior, or people who'd lived outside the main population centres must have had time to disappear into the jungles. The bugs didn't like the jungles, warriors going after 'wild humans' caught some sort of fungal infection and died. Of course the Brain bugs didn't care how many warriors died, they just sent more after the humans who were still hiding or resisting. Kiri had actually seen this, she'd seen the sick bugs as they'd herded captives towards the food processors...just before the screaming began. 

There was always screaming, Kiri could remember the screams of the men as they were fed to the processors after the bugs had made them build the huts and impregnate all the women and girls in the camp. Only the strongest men were allowed to survive so that they'd always be enough males around to impregnate the women again after they'd given birth. This had been how Kiri had found out what had happened to her planet. The guy who'd made her pregnant had been in the planetary militia, he'd managed to survive the bug attack and told Kiri everything he knew as he'd had sex with her. Not long afterwards he'd been sent to the food processors too.

It didn't take long for Kiri to work out what the bugs were doing, or at least trying to do. The Brain bugs were trying to turn people into a food resource; she and the other five-thousand-plus women in 'The Camp' were the breeding stock, the cattle. This was why the bugs hadn't killed everyone, this was why they were turning people into animals. This was why she had to survive; survive long enough so that when the Federation came back she'd be there to tell the universe what had happened and why the bugs had to be totally exterminated and wiped from existence as if they'd never been.

0=0=0=0

**Aboard the TFCT, H Jones, Gateway Station, Earth Orbit.**

Standing in her cabin come office, Buffy looked at herself in the mirror, she couldn't help but smile as she touched the shiny, new sergeant's chevrons on the right arm of her khaki blouse, she was a sergeant now. Buffy still found that hard to believe, she'd been in the army for just over five years now and for most of those years she'd been fighting the bugs and now she was a sergeant. This meant she was also responsible for the lives and welfare of First Section, First Platoon, 'A' Company, First Battalion, One-Hundred-and-Eleventh Infantry Regiment, or, 'The Pink Panthers', as the troopers had come to call it.

Under normal circumstances, Buffy knew that it should have taken her twelve, maybe even fifteen years to reach the rank of sergeant. But there'd been the war (always good for speeding up promotions); plus the Army had finally bitten the bullet and formed the all female units they'd been talking about for almost as long as there'd been women in the Mobile Infantry. Buffy still wasn't completely convinced about the segregated units thing; she could see arguments for both sides, nothing was cut and dried. In her old unit, she'd fought hard to be accepted by the guys and she'd done a pretty good job of it too. When other female MI eventually arrived they found it much easier to fit in.

In the old Marauders she hadn't experienced one instance of sexual assault or harassment, but Buffy knew that this hadn't been true in some other units. Things had never been that bad as to cause a major scandal, but it was bad for moral and discipline none the less, plus it made the army look bad. Whatever the reason behind the formation of the all female units, it meant that Buffy was now a Section Sergeant and at the moment, de facto Platoon Sergeant. So far the 'Jones' only had enough MI aboard to form one section. The rest of the platoon wouldn't be due to arrive for a week or so, unfortunately the 'Jones' was scheduled to boost out of the Sol system tomorrow, on a very secret, special mission.

Whatever this mission was it was too important to tell newly minted Sergeant's about. All Buffy knew was that they'd be boosting out of the Sol System at zero-nine-thirty tomorrow morning and they'd be heading for bug controlled space. However, although they didn't have a full MI platoon aboard, first section wasn't alone. The squad bays that would normally be occupied by the platoon's second section were now full of 'specialist'. This was particularly strange because these 'specialist' weren't even military. So, Buffy asked herself, what sort of mission were they being sent on that required shipping twenty-five 'Social Workers' and 'Trauma Specialists' into bug space? Perhaps the bugs hadn't been loved enough when they were little and that was why they were trying to exterminate the human race. Buffy tried to tell herself that some how this all made sense and that the Star Marshal hadn't gone completely insane.

Tearing her eyes away from the mirror, Buffy went and sat down behind her desk, she had an actual desk! Okay, when she wasn't using it, it was supposed to fold away into the wall. So far she hadn't been able to try this out because since she'd been aboard the Jones she'd been working continuously at her computer. Looking at the screen, she brought up the next set of personnel records for review. Not that she really needed to read them, she knew just about everything that was written there, after all she'd written much of it herself. The door chime jogged her mind away from the computer screen and over to the door.

“Come in!” Buffy tried to keep her voice light and not to 'bark' like sergeants were supposed to; the door slid open to reveal Corporal Harmony Kendal, Buffy's bestfriend and lover.

“Hi Buffy,” Harmony smiled happily, she stepped into the small room as the door slid closed behind her.

“Hi Harm,” Buffy returned Harmony's smile, “take a seat,” Buffy gestured to the only other chair in the room, “how's life treating you now you're a Corporal?”

“Great!” Harmony replied as she shifted some printouts from the chair to the floor and sat down, “How's being a Sergeant?”

“Not so bad,” Buffy admitted, “but they never tell you about all the paperwork.”

“They don't?” Harmony looked a little shocked, “Like what?”

“Like this,” Buffy tapped the screen of her computer with a finger nail, “okay, lets get down to business...”

“Sure, why not?” Harmony nodded her head eager to hear what Buffy had to tell her.

“We'll take this as your joining interview,” Buffy smiled, “I mean there's not much I don't know about you after all these years. However, I think the new L-t will want to speak to you along with all the other squad leaders.”

“Roger that,” Harmony nodded her understanding.

“Okay, I've got two Corporal slots open and I've got two really good candidates to fill them...”

“And you totally want my opinion on who you should put where?”

“No stupid!” Buffy laughed, this was so typically Harmony, she never would believe that she was any good at anything, “You're one of the candidates, dufus!”

“I am?” Harmony looked genuinely shocked, “Wow!”

“Look I wanted to give you first choice,” Buffy explained, “you can either be squad leader of First squad or you can be my Assistant Section Leader...” Buffy watched Harmony carefully for a moment or two, “...I'm sorry to rush you, Harm, but I need your answer before you leave the room.”

“Well...” 

Buffy could almost hear the cogs spinning in Harmony's head; Harmony was a sweet girl and a fantastic buddy to have when the bugs were crawling all over you, but she wasn't exactly the sharpest knife in the draw.

“I think...” Harmony began slowly, “...I think I'd like to be first squad leader please. I mean being your assistant would be way cool, but...”

“But?” Buffy prompted; secretly she was glad that Harmony had chosen to take over first squad.

“But, if you bought the farm,” Harmony explained, “that would make me like totally section leader and like I don't think I could handle that, I might get people killed.”

“Y'know Harm,” Buffy smiled warmly at her friend, “I sometimes think you're wiser than the rest of us put together!”

Harmony had just proven that she knew her limitations, she'd be a fantastic squad leader but that was about as far as she would go in the service. No doubt someone would make sure she mustered out as a sergeant, but Harmony was a born corporal.

“Okay, I'm giving you Fin McCarthy as your Lance and Assistant Squad Leader,” Buffy explained, “you've also got Daze, Jamie and of course Princess Fiona as your scout. I'm sorry but the rest of your squad will be Boots and you won't have much time to knock 'em into shape.”

“Don't worry, Buffy,” Harmony replied in her best corporal's voice, “I'll totally make bug killers and heart breakers outta them...much!”

“I knew I could rely on you, Harm,” Buffy laughed gently at the serious look on her friend's face, “look, Harm I've still got a couple more interviews to do, can we meet in the mess hall later, I need to talk to you about some other stuff.”

“Sure,” Harmony got to her feet, “after dinner?”

“After dinner would be great,” Buffy agreed, “I'll see you then and could you find this Corporal Smith and send her to me, please?”

“No problemo, Sarge,” Harmony called as she headed for the door, “see you later.”

“Yeah, later, Harm,” Buffy watched as her bestfriend left her office and wondered if they'd still be bestfriends tomorrow.

Sighing heavily, Buffy turned back to her computer screen and brought up Corporal Smith's records; for the last three years Corporal Zoe Smith had been looking out for Buffy's 'sister', Dawn and in her book that put Zoe Smith squarely in the 'plus' column. Just then the door chime sounded again.

“Come on in!” Buffy called; a couple of seconds later the door slid open and Zoe Smith stepped into the cabin to stand at attention in front of Buffy's desk; she was a tall, blonde haired, woman of about Buffy's age.

“35470855, Career Corporal Zoe Smith, reporting as ordered Sergeant!” Zoe announced crisply.

“Relax Corporal and take a seat,” Buffy tried to look the part of the firm but fair senior NCO she was trying for; Zoe relaxed a little and sat down watching Buffy closely as she did so.

“If y'don't mind me sayin' Sergeant,” Zoe began slowly as she frowned across the desk at Buffy, “y'look nuffin' like ya sister.”

“Yeah,” Buffy agreed, “a lot of people've told me that...me, I think they mixed the babies up at the hospital, but she's still my sister whatever happened to make us look way different.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Zoe agreed with a firm nod.

“I see here you've got no family,” Buffy said trying to draw Zoe out some.

“Nah,” Zoe shook her head, “the army's the only family I've got. I don't remember anyfin' before the cops found me...”

“Yeah it says something about you having been abused or something,” suddenly Buffy felt very sorry for the life Zoe must have had before the cops found her in the Whitechapel district of London.

“Yeah that's wot the cops said,” Zoe replied making it clear my her tone of voice that she'd like to change the subject now.

“Of course,” Buffy nodded, “I hope we'll be able to be your family here, Corporal...” Buffy paused, before adding, “...looks like we already share a sister.” Buffy watched as Zoe's face lit up at the mention of Dawn. “Okay, lets see,” Buffy turned back to her computer screen, “Impressive combat record here Corporal Smith...how'd you like to be my Assistant Section Leader?”

“Wot!?”

“You've been Corporal squad leader for over two years, I think you're about due,” Buffy pointed out, “and if I didn't think you could hack it I wouldn't have asked.”

“Erm...”

“I hope that's the last example of indecision I'll see from you Corporal.”

“Right on, Sergeant,” Zoe replied as she recovered from her temporary shock, “I can do the job for ya if you're set on 'aving me.”

“Of course I am,” Buffy reassured Zoe, “with your record,” Buffy tapped the screen again, “I'd be stupid not to...oh and by the way...”

“Sergeant?”

“When we're alone or on the Squawk-net its, Buffy, Buff or even Snake.”

“Snake!?”

“Yeah I know,” Buffy sighed wearily, “I'll tell you all about it one day...so what should I call you?”

“Zoe maybe Zo...” Zoe shrugged, “...I carn't remember ever being called anyfin' else...”

“Of course,” Buffy replied quietly, “okay, first job as my new section assistant is to get yourself squared away. Then go around the squad bays and make sure everyone's settling in...you might like to warn everyone that I'll be doing a surprise inspection tomorrow morning, That'll make you popular with the guys...”

“Got it, Buff...” Zoe frowned, “...y'know that don't sound right to me.”

“It doesn't?”

“Buffy?” Zoe tasted the word and pulled a face, “And, there's no way I'm gonna call ya 'Snake'!”

“Thanks,” Buffy gave a heart felt sigh of relief.

“'ow ya feel about 'B'?”

“Erm...” Buffy's heart jumped in her chest as she heard Faith's old nickname for her, “...yeah, okay, I can live with that.”

“Cool...” Zoe nodded, “...anyfin' else, B?”

“Tell everyone I'll be making an announcement about our mission before dinner tonight so I want everyone in the mess hall by seventeen-thirty-hours, okay Zoe?”

“Roger that, B.”

“Okay, you better get on and could you send in PFC Summers, please?”

“No problemo...” Zoe gave Buffy a knowing smile before heading towards the door, “...one fing...”

“What's that?”

“Ya sister.”

“What about her?”

“She's probably not the little sister ya remember, okay?” Zoe explained, “She's not a kid any more...she's a woman now an' a damn fine MI.”

“I'll try and keep that in mind,” Buffy replied, “and Zoe...” Zoe paused at the door, “...thank-you, thank-you for everything.”

As she watched Zoe leave her office, the door closed behind her and the chime sounded again almost immediately.

“Oh my god!” Buffy felt her heart start to pound in her chest at the prospect of seeing Dawn after more than four years, taking a deep breath she called, “Come!”

The door slid open again to reveal PFC Dawn Summers dressed in her best khakis. In the few seconds it took for her to step into Buffy's office, Buffy had taken in the medal ribbons on Dawn's blouse, the wound stars on her sleeve and how she'd changed. Zoe had been right, Dawn wasn't a teenager anymore, she'd changed, grown-up in the intervening years. If they'd passed in the street Buffy wondered if she'd ever have even recognised her sister.

“D-Dawn...” Buffy stood up unsteadily and walked around her desk to stand in front of her sister, how tall she'd grown, was her first thought.

“B-Buffy?” 

“Oh, Dawn!” Buffy hugged her sister fiercely; yes she knew that this wasn't the Dawn she'd known and not really her sister. But, she felt so much like her sister in exactly the same way as 'her' Dawn had felt like her sister. “I've missed you so much...”

0=0=0=0


	2. Chapter 2

**JF-2698-5.**

The trick to surviving camp life, Kiri had discovered, was to isolate yourself, to live in your own little bubble and not let anything outside that bubble affect you. For this to work you had to at least pretend that you didn't care about anything or anyone other than yourself; Kiri had at times told herself she didn't 'care' about the babies she was forced to nurse. That she didn't care when the next batch of children were herded into the food processors or how they screamed as the blades cut into their bodies and reduced them to bloody offal. Kiri told herself that she didn't care when she saw a live child thrown to a couple of warrior bugs to be torn apart before they ate it. If you cared you'd go insane and if you went insane you stopped being human and if you stopped being human the bugs won; Kiri wasn't about to let the bugs win, not again.

0=0=0=0

**TFCT H Jones, Gateway Station, Earth Orbit.**

Standing next to the door of the mess hall, Zoe watched as the members of first section, got themselves seated and generally into some sort of order. Sergeant Summers, had told her she wanted to keep the meeting as informal as possible, so there was to be only the minimum of military formality. Opening the swing door a little Zoe looked outside into the corridor to see Buffy waiting a couple of yards away down the corridor, she nodded to Zoe who then let the door swing shut before turning back to face the room.

“TEN-HUT!” Zoe called; in an instant everyone stopped talking and stood to attention as Buffy entered the room.

“At ease,” Buffy called as she walked briskly across the mess hall to stand in front of the food replicators, “okay, everyone sit down and make yourselves comfortable.”

There was some quiet mutterings to accompany the noise of scraping chair legs as the section sat down and turned to look at Buffy. It was at this point that she realised yet another draw back to being short, the people at the back of the mess probably couldn't see here. Stepping forward she grabbed a spare chair, positioned it where she'd been standing then stepped up onto the seat.

“Can everyone see and hear me?” she asked.

“Totally!” Harmony called from the back of the room.

“Thank-you Corporal Kendal,” Buffy called back before taking a deep breath, “For those of you who don't know me, I'm Sergeant Buffy Summers...” there were a couple of quiet sniggers from the audience but otherwise the section took the news quite well, “yeah I know,” Buffy looked at one of the sniggerers, “I don't know what my Mom was thinking either.” This caused a bigger laugh from most of the troops, “I'm your Section Leader and temporary Platoon Sergeant and also, just at the moment, your acting Platoon Leader. But, that's only until tomorrow when the new L-t arrives...” Buffy glanced at Zoe, “...what's her name again Corporal Smith?”

“Miss Von Neidermyer, Sergeant,” Zoe replied without hesitation.

“Yeah, Lieutenant Von Neidermyer,” Buffy shrugged, “I've never heard of her, but I expect we'll all grow to love her.”

This news produced another quiet outbreak of laughter from the section.

“Okay, I'll tell you now, I'm not going to be your friend, I'm not going to be your sister and I'm definitely not your Mama, but...” Buffy paused as she let her eyes roam over the twenty-five other women in the room, “...I will do my damnedest to make sure that as many of you as I can get home to their families. I also promise that before too long I will speak to each and every one of you...and remember your names, however long that takes me!”

There was another ripple of laughter at this news.

“So what do I want from you guys?” Buffy asked and then answered her own question, “I want a happy and efficient section. Some people say you can't have both, but I say; a section can't be efficient without being happy and it certainly won't be happy if its not efficient. As part of this drive for efficiency they'll be a full inspection of the squad bays and facilities tomorrow at zero-eight-thirty...” the groan from the section at this news wasn't as loud as it might have been. Obviously, Zoe had already spread the word about the possibility of an inspection and Buffy suspected that her three squad leaders had already got their bays into sparklingly clean order. “Corporal Smith will be handing out cleaning rotas after this briefing. Plus over the next couple of days I'll be issuing a training schedule to all squads.”

“On a lighter note and in line with me wanting a happy section,” Buffy smiled, “anyone with any ideas for fun things to do can see either myself or Corporal Smith with their suggestions and we'll see what we can do.” Again Buffy paused to let her troopers mull that over, “Now on to a couple of more serious things. Listen up and listen good; I do not mind people enjoying a few beers after duty. What I do mind is when people get drunk. I also don't care who people make out with,” after being told that no one had paid much attention to her 'no screwing' rule, Buffy had decided to relax things a little. “But I will come down on you like the wrath of god if it affects the running of the section, the platoon or the ship, do you understand me?”

“Roger that!” replied twenty-five voices in unison.

“Good,” Buffy replied quietly, “Now I expect you're all interested to hear what our first mission together will be...well, I'll tell you as soon as I find out,” this information produced some ironic laughter. “Honestly I've no idea what we're going to be doing, but, the more observant of you might have noticed that there's a bunch of civ-pop aboard...social workers and trauma specialists. So, I'm sorta betting that this might be a prisoner rescue mission, I don't know for sure but that's what my 'sergeant-sense' is telling me. If it is, I want everyone on the bounce so lets hit those simulators hard, roger that?”

“ROGER THAT, SERGEANT SUMMERS!” Everyone called back loudly, almost knocking Buffy from her perch with the force of their conviction.

“Coool,” Buffy smiled as she checked the clock on the bulkhead wall, “Okay I won't take up any more of your valuable time, carry on.”

After climbing down from her chair, Buffy grabbed a food tray and joined the line of troopers that was forming at the food replicators.

“Private Summers,” Buffy called quietly when she saw her sister, “Join me for dinner?”

“Sure Sergeant,” Dawn smiled back.

“Sergeant's pet,” one of Dawn's buddies smirked.

“Sergeant's sister, if you please,” Dawn replied without malice, “and unless you wanna spend the rest of your term scrubbing out the heads I'd remember that if I were you!”

Dawn's friend turned to another trooper and rolled her eyes dramatically as she sighed heavily before explaining, “She was such a nice girl back in her old unit,” the trooper explained in a stage whisper, “but then she started mixing with NCO's and now look at her!”

There was a quiet outburst of laughter from the little group before they went back to the important task of choosing what they were going to have for dinner.

0=0=0=0

“Hey!” Zoe said as she walked over to where the blonde Corporal and her dark haired Lance were sitting, “Mind if I join ya?”

“Like cool,” the blonde gestured to an empty seat and introduced herself and her buddy, “I'm Harmony Kendal and this is Fin McCarthy.”

“Hi,” Zoe put down her tray before seating herself, “Zoe, Zoe Smith,” she looked at Fin, “Fin?”

“Short for Finnula,” Fin explained.

“Cool,” Zoe nodded as she started to eat, “y'guys served with Sergeant Summers before right?” Zoe got an answering nod from the two women, “Wot's she like?”

“Brave,” Fin replied between mouthfuls of recycled packing crate which was masquerading as some sort of meat pie, “tough, knows what she's doing and tries not to get people killed.”

“She's also, totally sweet and caring and funny and cute and...”

“Harm!” Fin interrupted before Harmony could go into more detail, “Sorry,” Fin glanced at Zoe, “Harm's sorta bias...”

“Bias?” Zoe asked fishing for more information.

“Of course I'm totally bias,” Harmony explained, “Buffy an' me were at school together and we've served together for like years now and like we've totally been making out together for over a year too!”

“Harm!” Fin sighed in despair, Harmony was a great squad leader but she was also very open about her personal relationships.

“So you an' the Sergeant are an item?” Zoe asked.

“Sure,” Harmony nodded, “like totally...” a frown crossed her face for a moment, “...you're totally okay with that right? You're not from one of these totally crazy, weird religious cults or something are you?”

“Hell no!” Zoe laughed, “I'm cool with it, I just wanna find out were I stand, y'know?”

“Oh,” Harmony smiled, “Buffy's the best friend you could like totally have, in or out of bed!”

“Roger that,” Zoe agreed as she looked over to where Buffy sat with her sister, they seemed to be deep in conversation, obviously hashing over old times and catching up, “So, how come Sergeant Summers an' 'er sister look so different, like Dawn is way taller an' the hair colour...?”

“Buffy said something about Dawn being adopted or like being totally magically inserted into her life or something...” Harmony shrugged, “...whatever, they're totally sisters, I remember Dawn from Sunny'D' when I used to go 'round to Buffy's house.”

“Magically inserted?” Zoe glanced at Fin who just shrugged and rolled her eyes again.

“We went on a mission to some planet where they had dragons and mythical monsters,” Fin explained, “I don't think Harm's quite got over it yet.”

“Roger that,” Zoe nodded in agreement, she'd been on some odd missions in her time too, a few of them still gave her nightmares, “So what missions 'ave you guys been on an' why do they call 'er 'Snake'...?”

0=0=0=0

“So how was mom, before...before...” Buffy found she couldn't say the words.

“Before the Bugs murdered her?” Dawn replied bitterly, “About the same...”

“Did she ever talk to you about me and why she didn't want me to enlist?” Buffy found talking about how her future-mother had rejected her after she'd enlisted difficult.

“Never,” Dawn shook her head sadly, “I tried to find out why but she refused to talk about it...of course now we'll never know.” When Buffy didn't say anything, Dawn tried to think of something to say to make her sister feel better, “She wouldn't have turned you away if you'd had the chance to visit, y'know that, don't you?”

“It didn't look that way from where I was standing,” Buffy replied bitterly, as she examined her memories, “of course we'll never know now...”

“Wanna beer later,” Dawn asked.

“Not tonight, I've got to talk to Harm about something,” Buffy's planned 'talk' with Harmony was one she wasn't looking forward to, “maybe another night, okay?”

“Sure no problem,” Dawn replied as she studied her sister's face, “you an' Harmony are pretty tight, right?” Dawn could remember Harmony visiting her home when Buffy and Harmony had been cheerleaders together.

“Yeah...” Buffy nodded her head slowly, “...real tight.”

0=0=0=0

**JF-2698-5.**

Sitting cross legged on the floor of the feeding hut, Kiri nursed the two children she'd been assigned just like she did four times a day ever day. The two kids were big, they'd soon be weaned off milk and onto the vegetable mush that the bugs fed everyone. The women in the camp grew the vegetables but the worker bugs processed it. It was probably when they were processing the human's food that the Bugs added the drugs that made everyone into a mindless zombie! The drugs had to affect people's ability to think; it didn't effect Kiri so much, in fact there were about a hundred women who seemed to be resistant to the drug. But that didn't stop them going through her system, into her milk and from there into the kids, this explained why all the children were so quiet and lethargic. As the kids didn't play much or run around they got fatter quicker, just like the bugs intended and a fat child made more bug food.

Over time Kiri had noticed other things that the bugs had done, how they'd altered people to suit their needs. Of course Kiri couldn't be certain, she'd only been thirteen when her education had stopped and she'd only just begun learning about the specifics of human reproduction when the bugs arrived. However she'd spoken to some of the older women who, like her, weren't affected by the tranquillizers the bugs used on them and they'd sort of confirmed her suspicions.

In the camp, women came to term in slightly less than six months instead of nine. Babies were born smaller than normal but grew quicker and there were now many more multiple births, twins and triplets were the norm not the exception. Kiri didn't know how the bugs were doing this but she knew they were, it was all part of their plan to turn people into cattle. But, what Kiri couldn't understand was, why were the bugs doing it? Wouldn't the bugs have found it easier to use faster breading farm animals as a source of meat instead of going through all this trouble to bend human biology to their will?

Whatever, Kiri sighed as she watched the two kids sucking at her breasts, they seemed contented enough. They didn't know that in about six months to a year, when they were nice and plump the worker bugs would come and drive them screaming and crying into the food processors and Kiri would tell herself that she didn't care.

0=0=0=0

**Aboard the TFCT H Jones, Gateway Station, Earth Orbit.**

Sitting in her little cabin forward in 'Navy Country', Lieutenant Ayaka Matsumoto (Psi Ops) had just finished composing a letter to her friend and lover Sasha Guskov. Pressing the 'send button', Ayaka sped the letter on its way. With luck it should reach Sasha in a couple of months, space was a big place and messages could only go as fast a light or as fast as a FTL ship could carry them. Sighing she turned back to her computer screen and called up the TOE for the MI section stationed aboard the H Jones. Looking down the list of names, Ayaka saw that the Summers sisters where aboard. The older sister, Buffy, was the section sergeant and the younger girl, Dawn, was a senior PFC who'd soon be promoted to lance corporal. Having met Dawn Summers once before, Ayaka had liked the girl.

Clicking away from the MI TOE, Ayaka quickly went through the combat records of the women in the unit. About half were what the Army called boots, the rest were all combat veterans; Ayaka hoped that would be enough. The mission had been planned by the Star Marshal himself and it called for a full platoon of female MI, but there'd only been this newly formed section available, it would have to do. Of course they'd be joining up with the rest of the assault force as soon as they got near JF-2698-5, but the MI who'd provide the Task Force's main striking power were mostly guys and it had been thought that the prisoners would react better to women. Ayaka gave a short snort of laughter; as you couldn't tell the sex of an MI in his or her suit, she couldn't see how it would make much difference. But that was what the brass wanted and that was what the brass would get. Clicking onto another page that gave the operational outline for the mission, Ayaka started to read it thought yet again.

“This better work,” she told herself, if it didn't the Federation was going to be in deep shit!

0=0=0=0

Moving Harmony's arm, which was draped across her body, Buffy rolled over in her bed and looked at her bedside clock. It was nearly half-past midnight (ship's time).

“Well that didn't go exactly how I planned it,” Buffy whispered to herself.

Buffy had called Harmony to her room so she could have a private talk to her about their relationship. In fact Buffy was going to tell Harmony that they'd have to stop 'making out' together because she was a sergeant now and Harmony was still a corporal. It'd been fine for them to be lovers when they'd both been corporals together, even if Harmony was a Lance, but now... Now, with Buffy being the Section Sergeant she had to be more aware of not showing any favouritism to her lover, not that she would have and not that Harmony would expect her to. But people could get to thinking that Buffy's decisions might be driven by her relationship with Harmony. Or, worse still, Buffy might send Harmony into danger in an attempt to show that she wasn't bias. However, it hadn't worked out like that, Buffy had tried really hard to break up with Harmony but she found she couldn't. One look at Harmony's sweet, face had convinced her that she couldn't hurt her friend like that, she couldn't bare to see Harmony cry.

“Oh, well,” Buffy sighed again as she rolled over to snuggle up to Harmony once more, “we'll make it work...somehow.”

0=0=0=0


	3. Chapter 3

**TFCT H Jones, Gateway Station, Earth Orbit.**

The early morning inspection had gone better than Buffy had expected. It proved to her that her squad leaders had a 'grip' on their squads even after only a couple of days of being together. It also showed that she had troopers who were already starting to bond. However, she'd need to talk with whoever was in charge of the civ-pop specialists. Her troopers would have more duties to perform before the mission proper started and they couldn't spend all their time cleaning up after a bunch of scruffy, dirty, uncivilised civ-pop.

“Zoe,” Buffy said quietly; they were standing in the main airlock waiting for Lieutenant Von Neidermyer to turn up, “who's in charge of the civ-pop?” 

“'old on I'll check,” Zoe raised her left arm and waited for the screen of her wrist computer to deploy, when it did she tapped out a query on its touch screen, “Senior Supervisor Matilda Grimsdyke.”

“Grimsdyke?” Buffy sniggered, “You're kidding me, right?”

“Nah,” Zoe shook her head, “look...” she turned the computer screen so Buffy could read it herself.

“She musta had fun at school,” Buffy opened her own wrist computer and tapped in a note to remind herself to speak to the Senior Supervisor, “While you've got that open,” Buffy said as she glanced at her own screen again and noted the time, Lt Von Neidermyer was cutting it fine the ship would be locked-down in fifteen minutes, “We need to schedule time for everyone to be fitted to their suits, have we got anyone with experience on suit maintenance?”

“Corporal White,” Zoe answered almost immediately.

“Good, what about weapons?” Buffy wanted to know, with only half a platoon to play with it was going to be difficult to fill all the shipboard jobs that needed doing.

“Best fit I've got is you and Corporal Kendal,” Zoe again showed Buffy her screen.

“That's cool, I like working with weapons,” Buffy explained, “Other things like 'Internal Economy NCO', 'Laundry NCO' and 'Cookhouse NCO' will have to be spread between the Lances and the senior PFCs.”

“I'll get on that as soon as we've finished 'ere,” Zoe stopped tapping out reminders to herself before closing up her computer.

“You know Corporal Smith, I'm feeling real good about choosing you as my Assistant,” Buffy smiled, “Keep this up and you can have my job then I can go do something more interesting!”

“Gee thanks Sarge,” Zoe replied with heavy sarcasm.

“Whatever,” Buffy shrugged as she turned to watch the ramp leading to the airlock; the Captain would seal the ship in less than fifteen minutes before she'd boost them to the jump point which was about five light minutes above the solar plain, “now where's this Von Neidermyer woman?”

“Helga Von Neidermyer,” Zoe had her computer screen open once again and was reading the information scrolling across it, “aged twenty-three, joined the MI when she was eighteen, got chosen for OCS after six months serving with Roger's Rangers...”

“That's fast,” Buffy pointed out, “she's either very good or she has an important mom or dad.”

“General Karl Von Neidermyer MI retired,” Zoe supplied seamlessly, “she got a Military Cross for the Behara campaign plus a wound star.”

“I hope tardiness isn't one of her 'endearing' qualities,” Buffy once again checked the time, “because if she doesn't turn up in...five minutes she'll have to walk and I'll be acting platoon leader...” Buffy glanced at Zoe, “...and you'll be acting section sergeant so don't smirk like that.”

“Me? Smirk?” Zoe grinned, “Never 'appen Sergeant...” Zoe glanced out the air lock, “Hey, Sarge, looks like ya command opportunity's gonna have to wait,” she pointed to a figure stepping onto the ramp, “'ere she comes.”

“Okay,” Buffy glanced over to the two PFCs who were supplying the side party today, “Brace up ladies, tits out, shoulders back, stomachs in!”

Turning back to watch the ramp, Buffy saw a young woman in officer's khakis walk uncertainly up the ramp and into the air lock; she was about five-eight or nine, very short blonde hair, athletic build. Her face was a little long to be really pretty and she was wearing a worried expression at the moment which didn't help. About a yard behind the officer was a small robotic trailer piled high with suitcases and kit bags.

“Oh please don't let 'er be a 'Bimbo',” Zoe muttered quietly out of the side of her mouth; a 'Bimbo' was slang for a female MI who thought more about her appearance on and off the battlefield than maybe she should. Luckily Bimbos were few and far between because they tended to get themselves killed as they wouldn't lie down in the mud and get their suits all dirty; at least that's what people who'd met one claimed.

“Hey,” Buffy whispered, “you know there's only three types of officer; those who get you killed because they're incompetent; those who get you killed because they're glory hounds and those that get you killed by accident and feel real bad about it afterwards...TEN-HUT!”

The four MI came to attention as Buffy stepped forward and saluted their new platoon leader, Miss Von Neidermyer looked slightly stunned at everything that was going on around her, she returned Buffy's salute smartly enough however, but didn't say anything.

“Welcome to the TFCT H Jones, Ma'am,” Buffy continued as she dropped her hand back to her side, “and welcome to First Platoon although at the moment we're just one section.”

“Ya Danke, Frauline Sergeant...?” Miss Von Neidermyer gave Buffy a questioning look.

“Sergeant Summers, Ma'am,” Buffy supplied before turning to one side and gesturing to Zoe, “and this is my Assistant Section Leader, Corporal Smith.”

“Ah, pleased to meet you both,” Miss Von Neidermyer regarded Zoe for a moment and seemed at a loss as to what to do or say next; like a good NCO should when she saw that her officer didn't know what to do, Buffy jumped right in and started to organise things.

“Ma'am...” Buffy began but was interrupted almost immediately.

“You should call me 'L-t', it is traditional, no?”

“Yes Ma'am, L-t...” Buffy looked over at the side party and desperately tried to remember one of the trooper's names, “PFC Garcia, take the L-t's baggage to her cabin then report back to your squad bay.”

“Sarge!” PFC Emma Garcia stepped forward and took charge of Von Neidermyer's trailer and led it into the ship.

“L-t,” Buffy turned back to her officer, “the Captain will be sealing the ship in a minute or so, we better get out of here and prepare for boost,” Buffy glanced at Zoe, “Corporal Smith, I'll see you in the armoury once I've finished with the L-t here.”

“Roger that, Sarge,” Zoe saluted Miss Von Neidermyer before turning away and heading for the armoury.

“If you'll come with me, L-t,” Buffy started to head for the inner air lock door, “we better get out of here...”

“I'm sorry for being late, Sergeant Frauline Summers,” Miss Von Neidermyer said quietly, “but I got lost on zee vay here...”

“L-t,” Buffy smiled at Neidermyer, “you're a 'young lady' and 'young ladies' don't get lost,” she explained, “they get spatially challenged or misdirected...”

“You are too kind Frauline Sergeant,” Miss Neidermyer, “I vill endeavour not to get spatially challenged again.”

“Roger that, L-t,” Buffy smiled, she was beginning to warm to her new L-t already.

0=0=0=0

**JF-2698-5.**

After she'd finished nursing the children in the feeding hut, Kiri made her way over to the feeding area to get something to eat herself. The vegetable mush that all the inmates of the camp ate oozed along several feeding troughs from a large, sealed vat twice a day, you could eat as much as you wanted, there was always more than was needed. At least the bugs weren't trying to starve anyone. The mush was pretty tasteless, Kiri had once joked to herself that it tasted of 'green'. Not only did it contain the tranquilliser that kept most everyone in a zombie-like state, it also contained dietary supplements. At least Kiri thought it did, because apart from the slightly numbing effect of the tranquilliser she felt pretty healthy most of the time.

Kneeling next to the feeding trough, Kiri watched as the green mush oozed by, checking her hand was clean she dipped it into the slightly warm mush and transferred a handful of the goo to her mouth. It had the consistency of oatmeal and didn't really need chewing. Swallowing she glanced at the other women and girls who were feeding with her. Sneering, Kiri looked in disgust as some women stuck their faces in the mush and lapped it up like animals, others used both hands to transfer the stuff to their mouths as quickly as possible. Kiri knew that she shouldn't condemn these women, they couldn't help the way they acted, it was the stuff the bugs put in the food that caused them to act like animals.

Having eaten her fill, Kiri stood up and walked away from the feeding area and wondered what she'd do between now and the next time she was called to the feeding hut. Boredom was a big problem for herself and the other women who weren't affected by whatever it was that turned everyone into mindless baby and milk producing machines. Wandering over to the perimeter fence (yes the bugs actually used good old fashioned wire fences and barbed wire to keep their 'cattle' from straying) Kiri started at the jungle across the hundred yards of blasted earth that separated the camp from freedom.

The camp contained more than five-thousand women and girls, Kiri had never been able to get an accurate count on the children...but then she didn't really want to. The inmates lived in fifty long huts each containing around one-hundred women. Conditions were actually pretty good, there was no disease and little illness in the camp; again the bugs tried to keep everyone healthy. There were even med-bots that the bugs had salvaged from the ruins of the human cities to treat anyone who hurt themselves or got sick. Everyone had their own bunk and bedding and they were encouraged to shower every other day. 

Of the five-thousand 'stock', just over three thousand were 'breeders', and were kept continuously pregnant. The remaining women were 'feeders' who's job it was to feed all the children produced thus freeing the breeders for the important task of having babies so that the bugs wouldn't go hungry. Because of what the bugs had done, how they'd changed their stock, a woman could have two 'litters' of 'brats' a year, each litter consisted of three to four children, say seven children a year. Kiri found that these little exercises in mental arithmetic helped stop her brain from atrophying. Seven times, say four thousand came to...

Although Kiri had done the sums many times before, she was now finding it more and more difficult to use big numbers...that gave the bugs twenty-eight-thousand tasty snacks every year. The idea of twenty-eight-thousand human lives being sent to the food processors every year just to feed the bugs made Kiri feel sick. But it also brought up some questions that her dulled mind couldn't find answers to. Twenty-eight-thousand children could not be enough to feed all the bugs on the planet. Okay, so maybe there were other camps, Kiri had no way of knowing, but by the way the bugs had slaughtered people in huge, numberless batches when they first came to Ahmadnagar, she didn't think all this was exactly planed. This all seemed like an after thought, that the bugs had found something out that made it economical to farm humans.

Turning away from the fence, Kiri saw a couple of worker bugs herd a batch of children towards one of the food processors, this was all done under the watchful eyes of a fully armed warrior. Kiri knew what would happen next, she could almost hear the mindless cries of terror and pain as the latest batch of kids were 'processed'. Moving away from the fence, Kiri tried to get as far away from the processors as she could, she didn't want to see or hear what was about to happen; she told herself she didn't care, but she did because she was still human.

0=0=0=0

**TFCT H Jones.**

“So, what'd'ya fink of our new L-t, Sarge?” Zoe asked as Buffy joined her in the armoury.

“She seems okay,” Buffy shrugged, “nervous as hell and that accent...”

“Tell me about it...” Zoe nodded her agreement.

“I'll schedule some tac-sims so we can see how she operates in combat,” Buffy walked over to where several crates of weapons lay open on a work bench.

“Whole load of new kit, Sarge,” Zoe lifted up a plasma rifle and tossed it to Buffy who caught it easily and started to look it over, “brand new M6A1 plasma rifles.”

“Cooool!” Buffy smiled murderously thinking of how many Bugs she could fry with the weapons.

The problem the MI had with fighting the bugs was that there were too darn many of them! Normal spacing for the MI was about one trooper for each half mile of line. Fighting the bugs, troopers had to get close, like one-hundred to fifty yards close, which made them more vulnerable to area effect weapons. The problem was that the old M5 plasma rifles couldn't fire fast enough without overheating. The new M6's were made out of more advanced materials which took much longer to overheat.

“We got these too,” Zoe held up a small gatling-gun style weapon, “they're on trial for issue to squad leaders.”

“Oh yeah?” Buffy said dubiously as she put down the rifle and picked up one of the new weapons, “Convince me.”

“Clips on y'right forearm,” Zoe started to explain, “fires two-thousand, .22 calibre, case-less, carbon fibre penetrators a minute out to five 'undred yards. Its connected by a flexible feed to a magazine which fits above your jets and holds about twelve thousand rounds, enough for six minutes continuous fire.”

“Okay might be fun,” Buffy admitted grudgingly, like most MI she was pretty conservative where weapons were concerned, “I'm guessing I'll be carrying one of those instead of a plasma rifle.”

“An' your missile launcher,” Zoe pointed out, “I'm finkin' you'll want to carry a spare mag.”

“Okay we'll run some sims and see if we can work out what's a good load...” Buffy shook her head, “...one thing's for certain I'm not going into battle without my flamer.”

“Roger that,” Zoe agreed as she picked up another new weapon, “Flachette gun,” Zoe hefted the bulky weapon in her hand, “to be issued one per squad, its like an ancient assault shotgun only bigger. Magazine 'olds twenty .75 calibre shells firing penetrators, the effect's supposed ta be like a woman-portable Claymore mine.”

Picking up one of the drum-like magazines and examining it Buffy pondered the apparent move away from energy weapons to kinetic weapons.

“Can't say I'm too happy about having to carry so much extra ammo.”

“I know wot ya mean,” Zoe agreed, “call me old fashioned but I like me plasma rifle.”

“Any more surprises?”

“Nah, not really,” Zoe shrugged, “we've been issued the new .5 inch, LAGs...”

“I read the combat reports about those,” Buffy sounded more enthusiastic, “they're supposed to be even better than the old 25mm LAGs and you get to carry more rounds.”

“Roger that,” Zoe agreed again, “the rest of the stuff is just upgrades on old kit, usually making 'em lighter so ya can carry more.”

“More is always better,” Buffy pointed out.

“I'm with you on that one, Sarge,” Zoe started to pack away the weapons she'd been showing Buffy.

“All these shinny new toys need to be squared away,” Buffy pointed out, “I'll have Harm and a couple of her girls deal with it while I'm working up some tac-sims...” she sighed heavily, “...you know it'd be helpful if I knew what this super secret mission was.”

“No news?” Zoe paused as she put away a plasma rifle.

“Nothing yet,” Buffy admitted, “but there's a rumour of a rumour going around that we might get a briefing about five minutes before we climb into our capsules.”

“HA!” Zoe laughed bitterly, “Mushroom soldiers are we...”

“Kept in the dark and fed on crap!” Buffy and Zoe chorused.

“Okay, enough of this hilarity,” Buffy consulted her wrist computer, “where is my presence required next...?

“Senior Supervisor Grimsdyke,” Zoe supplied the information without hesitation.

“Yeah, our good Matilda,” Buffy closed her screen, “I do hope she's not one of these civ-pop who think soldiers are just mindless killing machines.”

“Ya mean we're not!?” Zoe asked in faux surprise, “Hey, I want my money back!”

“Talking of killing machines,” Buffy looked over to where Zoe was working, “I'm feeling a little cramped, wanna join me in the gym later for a work out? I promise not to go too hard on you.”

“Too 'ard on me?” Zoe stopped what she was doing and drew herself up to her full five-foot-five and glared down at Buffy, “Ya reckon? I'll see you there at eighteen-hundred, okay?”

“It's a date,” Buffy grinned before turning and heading towards the door, she called over her shoulder, “remember to bring bandages!”

0=0=0=0

**JF-2698-5.**

Hiding behind a hut which was as far away from the food processors as she could get without climbing over the wire, Kiri covered her ears but she still couldn't completely block out the children's screams as the were fed to the machine. Thankfully the cries of pain and terror didn't last long, soon everything went back to normal as if thirty young lives had not just ended in a welter of blood, flesh and bone.

Although she told herself that she didn't care, that the children dying in the processors had nothing to do with her, tears still rolled down Kiri's face every time another batch of kids were sent to the slaughter. If the Federation didn't come to rescue them soon, Kiri didn't know how long she could keep going. In a way she wished she was like all the zombie women who she shared the camp with. Freewill and the ability to think like something more than an animal was overrated. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Kiri looked up at the clear sky above her.

“Oh please come soon,” she begged an uncaring universe, “please...”

0=0=0=0


	4. Chapter 4

**TFCT H Jones.**

Landing heavily on her back, Buffy groaned as she climbed to her feet and Zoe bounced about on her toes just out of her reach.

“I'm definitely getting too old for this crap,” Buffy moaned as she got slowly back to her feet, “I think I'll resign, marry a farmer and have loads of kids on some frontier world with no proper medical facilities...that's gotta be way easier than this!”

Okay, Buffy told herself as she took up her stance once more, time to go a little 'slayer' on Zoe's ass. This time when the two women met, Buffy was moving slightly faster than a normal human should. Much to her surprise, Zoe countered her speed with some of her own. As the two women moved faster and faster, Buffy found that Zoe was blocking most of her moves and was hitting about as often as Buffy was hitting her. It soon became apparent that Zoe was yet another slayer.

“Okay!” Buffy called a halt to the 'work-out', “Lets stop before one of us gets killed...” Buffy was only half convinced that it wouldn't be her, “...right,” she cast Zoe a searching look, “just how long have you been super-strong?”

“Me?” Zoe was hardly out of breath, “Wot about you?”

“Okay,” Buffy stood up straight and walked over to stand in front of Zoe, “look, I've been the way I am since I was fifteen or sixteen, what about you?”

“I woke up in 'ospital like this,” Zoe admitted, “before that, I don't know.”

“Of course the amnesia,” Buffy reminded herself.

“Hey,” Zoe replied, “look, its nice to know I'm not the only one...I was beginin' to feel like a freak!”

“You're not a freak, Zoe,” Buffy reassured her, “you've just been given a special gift is all...”

“Special?” Zoe sounded doubtful, “Sometimes I wonder...but hey, it did make boot training easier.”

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded remembering her own time at boot camp, “you're not wrong.”

Before she could say anything else the door to the gym burst open as a crowd of MI and Navy girls walked in.

“Inter service five-a-side football match,” Zoe replied to Buffy questioning look, “I set up a league this morning.”

“When?” Buffy looked at Zoe in shock, “Like when did you have the time?”

“I didn't,” Zoe smirked, “I gave the job to ya sister...she's one mean football player and not bad at organisin' stuff.”

“Okay, good work, give Dawn an 'atta-girl' from me next time you see her,” Buffy watched the young women for a moment as they sorted themselves into their teams and got ready to start their match. “Alright, lets head for the showers and you can tell me all about being super-strong...” Buffy paused before asking, “...you didn't have anything weird happen to you before you joined the army, did you?”

“Weird?” Zoe frowned, “'ow do ya mean 'weird'?”

“Oh you'd know what I meant if you'd seen anything weird,” Buffy explained, “On the bounce trooper...” Buffy lead the way towards the showers, “...so, do you have to tweak your suit so you don't kill yourself too?”

0=0=0=0

A couple of hours later Buffy lay face down on her rack with Harmony sitting on her butt as she worked the kinks out of Buffy's spine.

“Oh, you're too good to me Harm,” Buffy sighed in contentment.

“It's nice to know that I'm totally appreciated,” Harmony replied as she dug her fingers into Buffy's tense shoulder muscles, “So, how was your day honey?”

“Strangely satisfying,” Buffy admitted.

“How so?”

“Well,” Buffy took a breath before replying, “our new L-t isn't a complete ass-hat, but she's very new and if this mission's so god-damn important I'm wondering why they didn't send someone with more experience.”

“Yeah, even if it was a guy,” Harmony agreed as she worked her fingers down Buffy's back, “an' why are nearly half of our troopers like combat virgins?”

“Hey,” Buffy admonished, “you want this to be too easy?”

“It would be nice,” Harmony replied sadly, “just for a change...so, the new L-t is okay?”

“Seems so,” Buffy said slowly, “I'm taking her on a tac-sim in a couple of days time, I'll find out more then.”

“And the mission?” Harmony asked, everyone was still in the dark about what they were doing and where they were going, “you'd think someone would totally say something, it's not like we're going to broadcast it to the bugs.”

“I know what you mean,” Buffy agreed, “but you know the Brass.”

“Yeah I do,” Harmony sighed, “Turn over and I'll like totally massage your boobs.”

“I thought you'd never ask,” Buffy giggled as she wriggled around so she was lying on her back looking up at Harmony, “I don't think I say how much I care about you Harm, if anything should happen...” Buffy knew that every time Harmony and herself climbed into their capsules there was a chance one or both of them wouldn't come back, “...well, if anything should happen to you I...lets just say I would be majorly ticked off.”

“I know,” Harmony smiled as she placed her hands on Buffy's breasts and leant down to kiss her on the lips, “now shut up so we can have loads of orgasms!”

0=0=0=0

**JF-2698-5.**

The mission was so secret and so important that Lt Sasha Guskov hadn't even been allowed to tell Ayaka about it. In fact she'd had to close her mind to her lover's gentle probing so she wouldn't even get a hint of where Sasha was really being sent. As far as Ayaka was concerned, Sasha was off with Seventh Fleet who were assaulting a major Bug planet.

JF-2698-5 had been pretty near the top of the list of planets to be taken back from the Bugs. It had gone straight to the top when the Office of Naval Intelligence had put a couple of pieces of information together and then made a few wild guesses. The scenario they'd come up with was too important to be ignored. If what the ONI had found out was true then the Federation was in deep trouble. If it wasn't the Federation would have just regained a fairly important planet a little ahead of schedule. As far as the Brass saw things it was a win-win situation. Of course that was not how the guys in the powered suits or in the starships would see it, but that was the price of doing business.

So the vast resources of the Terran Federation had swung into action...at least the resources that could be spared from other offensives. Unfortunately no organised fleet could be pulled away from the Federation's strategic plan to take down the Bug Empire (as it was being called in the media). Instead, ships and army units had to be taken from non-urgent missions and cobbled together into an ad-hoc task force to take back JF-2698-5. Which was why Sasha found herself being dropped into JF-2698-5's jungles from a heavily stealthed recon ship in the hopes of finding some of the planet's human survivors. Sasha had been chosen because of her heightened telepathic and empathic skills. A stranger approaching a band of frightened and armed humans who were on the run from the bugs had a good chance of being shot by accident; Sasha's abilities helped prevent that from happening.

After only a couple of days on the planet's surface, Sasha did in fact sense a large group of humans near where she was camped. Radiating peace and love, she'd been able to approach the group without being shot. In fact the survivors had welcomed her as a sign that the Federation had not forgotten them and there was a chance, however slim, of them escaping the bug web. Unfortunately within twenty-four hours of joining the group, the Bugs found them and attacked. The group's fighters had tried to resist but as usual there were too many bugs and the humans weren't equipped with military standard weapons. The fight was short and extremely bloody, although a lot of bugs were killed it was no where near enough to save the group.

Expecting to die, Sasha was surprised when the Bugs didn't slaughter the survivors out of hand. Like so many other things about the bugs, even after over four years of war, humans didn't understand what motivated bugs to take prisoners or not. If you were military or at least in armour or on a starship, the bugs would capture you and send you to a prison world somewhere. So far the Federation hadn't found one of these prison worlds, but they knew they existed. If you were civilian, however, it was either a short walk to a bug food processor or you'd be killed on the spot.

Surrounded by Bug warriors, Sasha was surprised to see workers separate out all the younger women and children. Eventually she found herself standing in a group of about eighty women and their children. Just like everyone else she screamed when the bugs shot down the rejected survivors and left them to rot on the jungle floor. Surrounded by warrior bugs the women and children were herded off to who knew where?

0=0=0=0

**TFCT H Jones.**

“Section!” Buffy called out, “Section, 'SHUN!” she smiled to herself as her troopers came smartly to attention, turning Buffy saluted Miss Von Neidermyer, “First Section, First Platoon, ready for your inspection Ma'am!”

“Thank-you, Sergeant Summers,” Von Neidermyer returned Buffy's salute before starting her inspection.

Walking up and down the lines of troopers, Von Neidermyer, noted their smart turn out and how many Boots there were in their ranks. Hopefully this lack of combat experience would be off set by the combat veterans. Stopping in front of a PFC in third squad for a moment she read the young woman's name tag, 'D Summers' it said, this was obviously Sergeant Summers' younger sister. For a moment Von Neidermyer frowned, it wasn't usually army policy to have siblings posted to the same unit, but with the shortages of personnel these things happened. Running her eye over PFC Summers' medals and combat ribbons, Von Neidermyer smiled, it seemed the younger Summers was becoming as good a combat veteran as her sister; her eyes fell on the wound stars on the younger sister's sleeve and Von Neidermyer couldn't help but feel they should all be at home doing something less dangerous.

“Vell done,” Von Neidermyer said quietly before she moved on to inspect the last few troopers, three nervous looking Privates with no medals and no wound stars; she wondered how long that would last.

After finishing her inspection, Von Neidermyer turned to Sergeant Summers who'd been following her at a discreet distance along the lines of troopers.

“Vell done, Sergeant,” Von Neidermyer returned her sergeant's crisp salute, “A fine and vell turned out body of women...” she dropped her voice so only Buffy could hear, “...you and I must make sure that we don't turn them into, 'bodies of women', eh Sergeant?”

“Yes Ma'am,” Buffy replied quietly and with some surprise.

“Now I vould like to address the platoon,” Von Neidermyer said.

“Of course, Ma'am,” Buffy led the way back to the front of the parade.

“Break ranks unt gather 'round,” Von Neidermyer called.

A little uncertainly at first but with gathering enthusiasm the section broke ranks and moved to surround their new officer.

“Frauline, Sergeant Summers tells me,” Von Neidermyer said in a tone of voice that almost completely hid her own nervousness, “that she wants a happy and efficient platoon. Vell, I am here to tell you that I totally agree with her aims. Der Frauline Sergeant also tells me that to this end she has already set up some Tac-Sims in the combat simulators that I'm sure will surprise us all. I'm also pleased to say that I've approved her request for the forming of a rock-folk band that some of you had requested, you'll get your instruments as soon as the engineering section can find the correct programs for der replicators.”

There was some polite laughter at this news, the engineering section was famous for 'losing' non-vital things.

“Finally, I vont to talk to you about our mission,” Von Neidermyer said in a more serious tone of voice, “I cannot tell you much, but vot I can say is that this is a vital mission that may effect the course of the entire krieg...” Von Neidermyer paused and smiled a little, “...you older troopers and NCOs haf probably heard all that before...but this time I've been assured that it is literally true. Ve vill form part of a larger task force being sent to assault a bug held planet and ve vill haf a very special part in that assault, more than that I cannot say...” Von Neidermyer turned to Buffy, “...Sergeant you may dismiss the platoon to its duties.”

“Ma'am!” Buffy saluted once more before turning to face the main body of the platoon, “First Squad report to the simulators for Tac-Sims, second and third squads report to your on board duty stations...FALL OUT!”

The platoon, came to attention, turned to the left, saluted and then broke up to go to their duty stations.

“A vord, Frauline Sergeant,” Von Neidermyer called over to Buffy softly.

“L-t?” now the parade was over, Buffy could go back to the more informal form of address for her officer.

“A fine turn out, I congratulate you, I hope that they are as good in combat.”

“Erm, to be honest L-t, so do I,” Buffy shrugged, “If this is some sort of 'special' mission shouldn't it have been given to a more experienced unit or at least to a unit that's at full strength?”

“Ve'll haf to make the best of vot ve've got, Frauline Sergeant Summers.”

“Yes L-t.”

“Valk vith me,” Von Neidermyer gestured to the door of the gym where the parade had been held, “I think in future ve vill haf a parade only on Monday morning, unt inspections on Friday, this is good, ya?”

“Fine by me, L-t.”

“Also,” Von Neidermyer stopped walking and turned to face Buffy, “you haf much more combat experience than I, Frauline Sergeant, I vill always listen to your advice...I may not take it,” she smiled, “but I vill always try to listen, unt if you see me about to really screw up...” Von Neidermyer grinned down at Buffy, “...you haf mien permission to kick mien butt...hard!”

“Of course, L-t,” Buffy smiled and nodded her agreement, “all sergeants are issued with a pair of extra large boots especially for kicking the butts of new lieutenants.”

“Good!” Von Neidermyer suddenly became all officer-like again, “Now you said something about Tac-Sims, I hope you've got me scheduled?”

“Tomorrow morning, L-t,” Buffy grinned in anticipation, “zero-eight-thirty, I think you'll find it interesting.”

0=0=0=0


	5. Chapter 5

**TFCT H Jones.**

Lifting her arm, Buffy fired her gatling-gun-like weapon into the bug horde as the first wave broke against the barricade of broken concrete in front of her. Eagerly climbing over the jumbled pieces of broken concrete pillars and slabs in their attempt to get at Buffy and Zoe, the vile, nightmare creatures tried to kill the last few humans still defending the position. A burst of bug return fire hit Buffy knocking her off her feet, the line of rounds from her own weapon flew into the air above the bugs freeing them for a moment from its fire and allowing half a dozen of the monsters to climb over the rough wall and into the MI position.

Before Buffy could regain her feet and direct effective fire back onto the bugs, a painfully bright line of plasma bolts came in from her right flank to cut the bugs down. The bugs exploded at the touch of the vividly bright plasma sending legs and pieces of their weapons flying as their ammunition packs exploded. Pushing herself to her feet once more, Buffy heard spent bug rounds rattle against her armour as she lifted her arm once more and brought the bugs under fire.

The gatling gun Buffy was using was working pretty much as advertised, however it was using up rounds at a prodigious rate, she'd used up over fifty percent of her ammo load and the battle had only just started. Also the rounds were too small and it took, she guessed, about fifty hits to be certain of bringing down a single bug. Yes she could use it as a 'bullet hose' but that simply left a lot of wounded bugs that were just as dangerous as their uninjured brethren.

On the other hand the new M6 plasma rifles like the one Zoe was using appeared to be a big success. Buffy's assistant section leader was putting out an almost continual stream of plasma bolts which cut through the bug horde like a hot knife through butter. It was obvious, even from the computer generated tac-sim they were using to test the capabilities of their new weapons, that the gatling-gun was a non-starter while the new plasma rifles did exactly what it said on the box.

Not that Buffy was against the idea of some sort of gatling gun type weapon for the MI, she'd seen the larger .303 version mounted on Ogres in action and they'd been most effective at sweeping away bugs. Perhaps some kind of 'ground mount' .303 gatling would be useful for the MI, but this lighter man/woman portable weapon was a non-starter, she wouldn't be recommending that anyone carry them on the up and coming mission. As for the flachette guns they'd tried out, even on the overoptimistic settings supplied by the manufacturers, the weapon appeared to be an interesting way of committing suicide when used against bugs, even the computer generated bugs in the tac-sim.

Talking of tac-sims, Buffy reminded herself that she was in the middle of a life and death struggle here even if the bugs were being downloaded into her mind by the tactical computer which was running the tac-sim she'd written a couple of days ago. For a moment Buffy smiled as she imagined the look on Willow's face if she knew that her friend had been writing computer programs. Okay, Buffy wasn't as much of a technophobe as Giles had been but she'd never taken to computers anywhere near as much as Willow had.

Whatever, Buffy shrugged under her armour as she triggered the gatling gun attached to her right arm again. The bullets cut into the leading bugs well enough but they were just too small to stop a bug dead in its tracks with the first few hits. The icon that showed her how much ammo she had left was heading steadily towards zero when Buffy gave up on the gun and drew her tried and trusted flamer. Flaming bugs with the weapon in her right hand, Buffy dispensed handfuls of fire pills into her left and tossed them over the barricade to incinerate the bugs there. If you didn't have a plasma rifle or the bugs were too far away, Buffy had always been of the opinion that a fully fueled flamer and a couple of fire pile dispensers were the best weapons for taking down bugs wholesale!

“Okay, L-t,” Buffy called over the squawk-net, “we're gonna be overrun here soon, how about some FPF to help us out?”

“Final-Protective-Fire, on the way Frauline Sergeant!” Lt Von Neidermyer replied.

“Erm...L-T...danger close?” Buffy added as she burnt down another group of bugs who'd made it over the barricade.

“Mien got!” Lt Von Neidermyer called back, “Of course danger clo...!”

At this point the world exploded around Buffy; she just had the time to register the blindingly white flash of a nuclear explosion before her face plate blacked out and the tactical computer told her she was dead.

“Crap!” Buffy exclaimed as she opened her eyes and found herself not in heaven but in the white, coldly clean confines of the tac-sim chamber; she looked over to her right where Zoe lay on the couch next to hers, “You look disgustingly attractive for a dead woman.”

“Hey,” Zoe smiled, “wot can I say I'm just too 'ot even when I'm dead.”

“Whatever,” Buffy muttered crossly as she pulled sensors from her head and disentangled herself from the wiring that led from the sensors stuck to her skin to the computer itself, turning to look at the woman on her left, she frowned angrily, “Ma'am, we need to talk.”

“Ach, I'm sorry Frauline Sergeant Summers,” Helga Von Neidermyer guessed she was in trouble, not only had she 'killed' her two most senior NCO's, but her section sergeant had called her 'ma'am'; this was a good measure of just how badly she'd screwed up. “I must have programmed in the wrong coordinates...”

“And not only that,” Buffy replied coldly, as she slipped back into her blouse, “you used a nuke for FPF...what were you thinking?”

“I thought...” Von Neidermyer began but got no further because Buffy jumped down her throat.

“YOU DO NOT USE NUKES FOR FPF UNLESS THERE'S NO OTHER WAY OF STOPPING THE BUGS!” Buffy took a deep breath and calmed herself a little, she'd didn't enjoy dying even if it wasn't for real, “What do they teach people at boot camp these days, huh?”

“Sorry,” Von Neidermyer replied like a small girl who'd not only been caught with her hand in the cookie jar but with the keys to the cookie factory as well!

“I suggest...Ma'am,” Buffy was still angry, but not quite as angry as she had been a moment ago, “that you review the procedures for calling in fire missions at the earliest opportunity. I'm more than willing to help you out because I don't want my section reduced to radioactive dust because my platoon leader couldn't program an artillery strike correctly...ROGER THAT SO FAR!”

“Roger that, Frauline Sergeant,” Von Neidermyer replied suitably chastened; she knew she'd screwed up badly and it was Sergeant Summers' duty to chew her out about it, if she didn't no one else would.

“Now, L-t,” Buffy said in a much more relaxed tone, “I've got reports to write about the new weapons and you've got things to re-read, I suggest we meet again at...?” Buffy glanced over to where Zoe stood pretending that she wasn't there to hear her sergeant chewing out her platoon leader.

“There's a free slot after the midday meal,” Zoe said after consulting Buffy's daily schedule, the one she kept in her head.

“Thanks Zoe,” Buffy smiled at her corporal, “after lunch, that okay for you L-t?”

“Of course,” Von Neidermyer nodded before putting her own blouse back on and heading out the door.

“The universe better save me from newbie L-t's,” Buffy said to no one in particular.

“Hey,” Zoe walked over to stand next to Buffy, “she's still wet be'ind the ears an'...”

“No excuse, Zoe,” Buffy replied, she had twenty-five lives depending on her and she wasn't about to let some wet behind the ears shave tail screw things up and get even the newest boot in her section killed. “She should be able to do this stuff in her sleep. This was a sim, what if those were real bugs, what then? If the pressure's too great now what's it going to be like in a real fight?” 

“Okay I get that,” Zoe replied, “but now I'm gonna give you some advice...”

“You are?” Buffy lifted a delicate eyebrow.

“Yeah.”

“Go on then.”

“I'm going to tell you to find Harm,” Zoe began, “go somewhere quiet and spend an hour letting her calm you down...you scared me for a moment back there, the L-t's probably wet herself!”

“I was that bad?” Buffy asked guiltily.

“Uh-huh,” Zoe nodded.

“Okay,” Buffy signed, “My bad, I'll try not to make the L-t pee herself in future, okay?”

“Okay,” Zoe grinned.

0=0=0=0

**JF-2698-5.**

Crossing her arms under her breasts to give them some support, Sasha Guskov walked between the huts that made up the camp as she tried to work out what was going on here. Her mission had been in two parts; first she was to contact any groups of humans still at large on JF-2698-5, which she'd done. The second part of her mission had been to find and observe the prison camp the bugs had set up. In this she had succeeded beyond the wildest hopes of the intelligence people who had tasked her to this mission. It looked very much as if she was going to 'observe' the camp up close and personal.

When the bugs had captured Sasha and the group of humans she'd been with, they'd quickly separated out the surviving men and older women from the fit, young women and girls. They'd killed one group and herded the other through the jungle to the camp. On the journey, it had taken about three days to get to the camp, several women had tried to escape but none had succeeded and they'd been killed and eaten by the bugs. Others had just been eaten by the warriors, so that of the eighty or so people who'd been captured that were about sixty left by the time they'd reached the camp.

On reaching the camp the bugs had forced them all into a small, bare, wire compound. From here teams of worker bugs had grabbed the screaming woman and dragged them into a long, low, windowless wooden hut. When Sasha's turn came she was pulled roughly into the hut where the workers had ripped off her clothes and strapped her to what looked like a modified med-table. Shivering in disgust at the memory of the bugs touching her bare skin, Sasha tried to remember what the bugs had done.

The first thing that had happened was that the med-table had scanned her. Being fit and healthy, Sasha wasn't surprised when she wasn't killed out of hand. Instead the med-table injected her with something and then the bugs released her into the main part of the camp. It took her a couple of days to realise what the bugs had done to her and what they were doing. Each day her breasts had grown larger, heavier and more painful until on the morning of the third day she awoke to find little trails of milk leaking from her nipples. The bugs had made her start to lactate, this wasn't a particularly difficult feat of medical science, but it did beg the question as to why they'd done it.

It was on the forth day that she'd been led by several of the camps inmates to the feeding hut were she'd been given several babies and small children to nurse. It was while she sat on the floor with the children sucking at her breasts that she really started to realise just how quiet everyone was. The women hardly said a word to each other as they sat there nursing the children. The babies hardly cried and the small children that seemed to be everywhere didn't laugh or play or do much of anything, they just sort of sat or lay about getting fatter. It was on that first day in the feeding hut that she met Kiri.

“You were lucky to be chosen as a feeder,” Kiri informed Sasha as they sat next to each other feeding four children between them at one time.

“Doesn't feel like it,” Sasha replied as she tried to shift one of the babies she'd been given to feed into a more comfortable position.

“Oh you are,” Kiri forced a smile, “if you'd been chosen as a breeder you'd probably be sent to the food possessors after about a dozen litters.”

“Litters?” Sasha asked, but she thought she could guess the answer, changing the subject she asked, “Why's everyone so quiet and...”

“The bugs put something in the food to keep us all acting like zombies,” Kiri explained, “There's about a hundred of us that don't seem to be affected by whatever it is, but...”

“But what?” when Sasha looked into the haggered face of the young woman sitting next to her she saw the pain and fear in her eyes.

“I've been here ever since the bugs set the place up just after the invasion,” Kiri explained.

“That's more than four years,” Sasha gasped.

“Is it?” Kiri shrugged as she detached one child from her breast and replaced it with another, “I lost track after the first couple of years. After a while even if you're resistant to the drugs they start to numb your mind and you become a little less 'you' every day.”

“My god...”

“Don't put your trust in gods,” Kiri replied bitterly, “I used to pray to Kali every day that she'd come and strike down the bugs...but she never did, now I don't bother. The gods are dead or they don't care.”

“You know gods work in mysterious ways?” Sasha wanted to give this young woman hope.

“An excuse to do nothing,” Kiri countered.

“Don't be so quick to condemn your goddess,” Sasha explained quietly, “she may surprise you yet!”

0=0=0=0

**TFCT H Jones.**

Having taken Zoe's advice, Buffy had sort out Harmony. They'd gone to Buffy's cabin, locked the door and just lay in each others arms until Buffy felt she was more relaxed and wasn't about to rip the heads off any shave tail Lieutenants she might come across. Feeling refreshed, Buffy had eventually left her cabin to face the universe again. Just at the moment she was a very busy woman, although she said she had twenty-five lives depending on her, in reality she had twenty-six plus her own.

Not only did this mean she had to prepare herself and everyone under her for a mission that she knew nothing about, but she also had to prepare her platoon leader so she wouldn't get them all killed. Whenever, she thought about this she wondered why they hadn't been sent a more experienced officer. Yes, this was supposed to be an all female unit; but, there weren't that many experienced female combat officers around to fill all the slots. If this mission, whatever it was, was so important why hadn't they been given a temporary male officer to lead the mission. Buffy also wondered why they'd not been allowed to get up to full strength so they wouldn't have to go in with only half a platoon.

It was now late in the afternoon and Buffy was sitting in her office come cabin doing yet more paperwork, Not only had she got to ensure that the women under her command were ready for combat, she also had to be responsible for their general welfare. Just at that moment Buffy was checking to see who'd been on leave recently and who needed to be sent on leave should they all come back from the mission. Buffy would much rather everyone went on leave at the same time, she knew from experience that once you let a trooper go you were unlikely to see her again. It was a miracle that Buffy and her old squad had managed to stay together for so long. Just as she was making a few notes on who really needed some R&R, a soft knock came to her ears. Looking up she saw a slim, black haired, female Naval officer leaning against her open door. Frowning a little Buffy looked up at the woman.

“Lieutenant Matsumoto,” the officer announced herself, “I wonder if you could spare me a moment of your time, Sergeant Summers?”

0=0=0=0


	6. Chapter 6

“Of course, Ma'am,” Buffy replied as she stood up and gestured for the officer to come in and take a seat.

Noticing that, as usual, there was a pile of documentation on the only other chair in the room, Buffy hurried around her desk to move the tower of paperwork onto the floor.

“Sorry about the mess, Ma'am, no one ever warns you about all the paper work,” Buffy explained.

“That's perfectly alright,” Lt Matsumoto smiled, “and you can forget the 'ma'am' business, I'm not really a proper officer, the navy likes all its round pegs in round holes the rank is purely honorary...my given name is Ayaka.”

“So...'Ayaka'...what can I do for you?” Buffy retook her seat and studied the woman across the desk for her.

What she saw was a slim, pretty Japanese woman of about her own height; she was wearing the usual black, Psi Ops uniform with the silver insignia of a naval lieutenant which sort of made her equal to an army captain. So, what was a Psi Ops 'captain' doing slumming it with a lowly MI sergeant?

“I expect you're wondering why I'm here?” Ayaka asked, not that she really needed to, she could see the questions in Buffy's mind, she hardly needed to use her powers the queries were there for all who could see.

“It had totally crossed my mind,” Buffy replied, there was something about this woman that was making her uneasy.

“I can see I'm making you uncomfortable, Sergeant Summers...”

“If I'm to call you 'Ayaka',” Buffy smiled, “you should call me Buffy...”

“Not 'Snake' then?” Ayaka grinned.

“Oh please god, no!” Buffy laughed.

“So, Buffy,” Ayaka settled back into her seat, “lets get on with this, can you shut the door? What I have to say is confidential.”

“Sure,” Buffy pressed the icon on her computer screen that closed the door to her cabin and waited 'til it slid shut before speaking again, “right what's so totally confidential?”

“As you've probably guessed,” Ayaka began, “this mission we're all on is highly secret...”

“Yeah, what is it about that,” Buffy agreed, “normally you get told well in advance of a drop what's going on. It gives you time to prepare for any little surprises.”

“I understand,” Ayaka nodded her head, “and all will be revealed in a day or two,” she paused for a heartbeat, “In the meantime, as you're the highest ranking NCO aboard the ship and you've got the most combat experience, what is your opinion of Lt Von Neidermyer?”

“The L-t?” Buffy asked slowly as she looked for any verbal traps she might be walking into, on the face of it the question sounded fairly simple; this was just the Psi Ops people playing their little mind games once more.

“Don't worry, Buffy, this conversation is strictly confidential not even my superiors will hear anything you might say,” no, Ayaka smiled to herself, they won't need to hear anything, they'll just pick it all up from my mind, “I need to hear your assessment of Miss Von Neidermyer as it might have some effect on the mission.”

“Okay,” Buffy began slowly, “the L-t seems nice enough...”

Ayaka could see the doubt in Buffy's mind about her platoon leader.

“...but,” Buffy took a deep breath, she might as well say something now than wait until after the mission had ended in disaster, “she does seem like totally inexperienced for the mission if its as important as you seem to think it is...”

“Oh,” Ayaka replied earnestly, “take it from me it is, so you don't think Miss Von Neidermyer is up to the job?”

“I didn't say that,” Buffy pointed out, “I just think that at the moment she's a little wet behind the ears to command an important mission, perhaps in a couple of years...”

“Unfortunately we haven't got a couple of years,” Ayaka pointed out, “so we'll have to make do with what we've got.” Ayaka paused for another second or two before asking, “In the event of Miss Von Neidermyer not being capable of handling any situation we might come across, Sergeant Summers; do you think you could take military command if needs be?”

“You mean if the L-t buys the farm or something?” Buffy wanted to know.

“Or something,” Ayaka agreed with a nod.

“Or something?” Buffy remembered a mission on a planet where her platoon leader had cracked up and a lot of troopers had been needlessly killed or wounded as a result, “Yes,” she replied firmly, “I think I could do the job...not that I think the L-t would fall apart or screw up.”

“Your loyalty is noted, Buffy,” and nothing unusual, Ayaka added to herself, Sergeant Buffy Summers was a good MI, she'd proved that every time she'd climbed in a shuttle or a capsule and fought the bugs.

“So what about the mission,” Buffy asked, “the more I know the better I can prepare the section and the greater the chance of success.”

“Of course, I understand fully,” Ayaka became very serious as she spoke, “you understand that what I'm about to tell you can go no further than this room. Yes, you can tell your squad leaders that the mission will be an opposed capsule assault prior to a rescue mission, but you can't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you, at least not for the next couple of days, you understand?”

“I understand,” Buffy did but she didn't like secrecy, particularly when it might threaten the lives of her troopers.

“Buffy,” Ayaka took a deep breath, “how much do you know about what the bugs do with civilian prisoners?”

0=0=0=0

**JF-2698-5.**

Looking on in fascinated horror, Sasha watched as a batch of fifty or sixty children were herded towards the food processors by half a dozen worker bugs. The children didn't look or act scared, but that would soon change if what Kiri had told her was true.

“Can we go now?” Kiri asked urgently, she didn't want to be anywhere near the processors once the kids realised something was wrong.

“No, wait I need to see this,” Sasha moved to the corner of a hut so it wouldn't look like she was taking too much interest, not that the bugs gave any indication of caring whether she was or she wasn't looking, “How old are those children?”

“Oh,” Kiri took a quick look around the end of the hut, “about two-and-a-half, maybe three...”

“What!?” Sasha looked at Kiri in surprise, “That can't be right..”

“Remember, the bugs...” Kiri started to explain but gave up as she saw the first child come to the gate that led to the holding pen leading to the processor and hesitated, “...its about now they start to realise something's not right,” she explained, “I don't know how or why but it's always the same.”

Watching as the worker bugs started to try and force the first couple of ranks of children through the gate, Sasha still couldn't believe what Kiri had said about the age of the children. To her they all looked to be at least seven or eight, but with the bugs messing about with people's bodies anything was possible, wasn't it?

There was now a sort of rugby scrum going on down by the gate with children milling about in an uncontrolled mass, some started to scream and cry as the workers continued to try and get them into the holding pen. Finally a warrior bug appeared, it advanced quickly towards the panicking children, picking one up it threw the child over the heads of the other children and into the pen. This made the children scream and start to run. The only place they could run was into the holding bay.

“What happens next?” Sasha wanted to know.

“THEY ALL DIE!” Kiri screamed, “Can we go now?”

Turning her head to face Kiri, Sasha saw the look of fear and hopelessness on the girl's face.

“Go,” Sasha told her, “you don't need to see this again, I'll meet you at the feeding hut before the next feeding period.”

Without saying another word, Kiri turned and ran off trying to get as far away from the food processors as she could. Turning back to watch the holding pen, Sasha saw that the workers seemed to be letting the children calm down before continuing the process. It was working too, the children were noticeably calmer now and the warrior had scurried off to wherever it was the warriors went when they were not needed.

There was a loud 'CLUNK' followed by the sound of heavy duty electric motors. Following the sound to its source, Sasha saw the door of the food possessor start to swing open. Even from where she stood, about fifty yards away, she could clearly see the marks the blades had made in the metal work of the door, she could also she the brown dried blood that caked the inside of the machine. Much to her surprise the children didn't start to panic again when the workers started to herd the kids into the machine. Perhaps, the bugs had indoctrinated the children to go into the machine but even as she thought the thought, Sasha dismissed it, the bugs didn't think like that or they just didn't care. Having read the reports she knew that the bugs weren't bothered whether you were dead or alive when you went into one of their machines. Sasha supposed that it coursed the bugs slightly less hassle if their victims walked willingly to their deaths.

Once the last child was in the machine the door started to close. There was another loud 'CLUNK' as the door stopped and locked, followed a moment later by the sound of more motors starting to wind up. Sasha knew that these were the motors that drove the rotating blades. Before she'd come on the mission she'd seen a captured processor in action, of course then it had been full of medical dummies. Watching the view screen as the great blades chopped the dummies up she'd felt slightly sick even then...but the dummies hadn't started to scream once they realised that they were going to die.

Vomiting onto the sandy soil, Sasha clapped her hands over her ears as she tried to block out the hysterical screams of the children in the machine. After only a few seconds she couldn't take it any more. Turning away, she started to run as fast as she could heedless of how much her over large, milk bloated, breasts hurt as they bounced from side to side, she had to get away from there as quickly as possible.

0=0=0=0

**TFCT H Jones.**

Still sitting at her desk Buffy watched as the door slide shut behind Lt Matsumoto, she tried to process everything she'd been told in the last half-an-hour. Before she'd heard Ayaka's story she'd always looked on the bugs as just another enemy that had to be fought and defeated. Sure, her attitude had changed when she'd discovered what the bugs liked to use as food, but now... Now, Buffy knew that the bugs had to be completely eradicated from the universe, wholly wiped from existence. Reaching out to her computer screen Buffy touched the icon for Zoe Smith's personal communicator.

“Sarge?” Zoe's voice came clearly out of the speakers in Buffy's computer.

“Zoe,” Buffy said in a low urgent voice, “drop everything and come to my cabin, on the bounce.”

“On way boss,” Zoe replied just before the connection died; less than a minute later Zoe stood in front of Buffy's desk.

“Sit,” Buffy ordered, “look I've just had a disturbing conversation with our Psi Ops officer.”

“Isn't that the only type of conversation you 'ave with those freaks?” Zoe asked.

“Freaks?” Buffy gave her assistant a half smile, “And this from Zoe Smith, 'super-woman', pots and kettles much?”

“Point taken,” Zoe shrugged, “okay, Sarge, wot did little Miss Reads-your-mind 'ave to say for 'erself?”

“First off I can't tell you everything, you'll find out the details in a couple of days time,” Buffy explained, “but what I can tell you is that this is an opposed assault landing by capsule prior to a rescue mission.”

“We're getting some of our people back?” Zoe asked hopefully.

“In a way,” Buffy admitted, “we're not going after military POWs...”

“Civ-pop?” Zoe asked incredulously, “But the bugs don't...”

“I know, but this time they have.”

“But...” Zoe's voice faded to nothing as she imagined what the bugs might be doing; nothing she could imagine came anywhere close to the reality.

“Okay,” Buffy took a deep breath, “more than usual this one must go my the numbers and on the bounce. I'll need Harm and her squad to double check all the weapons and I've had a sneaky idea about how to use those flachette guns but I'll take that up with Harmony. Chalky White,” Buffy referred to the corporal in charge of third squad, “and her girls will need to double check every suit we've got. And finally Lea,” the second squad corporal, “needs to run our civ-pop through their suit drills 'til they can do them in their sleep.”

“Got that,” Zoe nodded as she finished making notes on her wrist computer.

“Finally, in our copious free time,” Buffy sighed heavily, “we'll all need to go through some tac-sims for cap-assaults into jungle terrain...”

“Jewt's?” Zoe sniggered.

“Yeah, Jungle Exercise Without Trees,” Buffy couldn't help smirking herself, “but I'll need to write some add ons for the basic program, so while I get on with that can you get everything else organised?”

“Wot about the L-t?” Zoe asked.

“Don't worry about her,” Buffy reassured her friend and assistant, “I'll deal with the L-t, okay?”

“Roger that, Sarge.”

“Okay we've only got about a week to make everything as perfect as we can, so on the bounce trooper!”

“I'm bouncing,” Zoe called as she turned and headed for the door, “I'm bouncing.”

0=0=0=0

**JF-2698-5.**

Standing by the perimeter wire and looking at the jungle only one hundred yards away, Sasha tried not to think about what she'd seen and heard. Turning her head slightly she saw Kiri standing next to her, this girl had lived with these horrors for more than five years, she'd barely been more than a child herself when she'd been forcibly impregnated as part of the bug breeding program. It was no wonder that she was teetering on the brink of insanity.

“Have you ever tried to escape?” Sasha asked, “I mean the bugs don't appear to watch people too closely, no one's been fitted with a tracking device, so...”

“I used to plan all sorts of escapes when I was first brought here,” Kiri admitted.

“But...?”

“But,” Kiri touched the barded wire fence, “there's nothing to cut through the fence with, I know I spent months looking, the bugs don't leave tools just lying around.”

“What about climbing over?”

“With these hanging down in front of you,” Kiri touched her milk heavy breasts, “and have you tried to climb over a barbed wire fence completely naked?”

“Can't say I have,” Sasha admitted.

“Then,” Kiri continued, “say you get passed the fence and into the jungle, what then?” she demanded. “This isn't one of your tamed jungles like on the core worlds, there are big, hungry things out there that'll eat you as quick as the bugs will.” Kiri went silent for a moment before starting to speak again, “I know that you think I should have tried, I expect you're all about 'Death before Dishonour' an' all that, but, I was just a scared kid when I got here and the stuff they give us to keep us docile...I know I'm not a zombie, but it still slows me down makes it's hard for me to think...”

“I know,” Sasha admitted, “there's no shame in it, you're a civilian I've been trained...”

“I don't want your pity,” Kiri replied forcefully.

“You're not getting it,” Sasha replied, “I'm just saying I understand...now I need to talk to the other women who are like us, not zombies.”

“Why?”

“Why?” Sasha smiled, but not in a nice way, “To prepare them...we're going to be rescued.”

0=0=0=0


	7. Chapter 7

It had all started while Buffy, Harmony and the girls had been assaulting the Vampire President of Summerworld's palace. In another sector another MI force had attacked a small bug colony and discovered something that would eventually cause the present operation to be given the highest priority.

By some fluke of chance the attack on the bug colony on EG-4605-4 had been an intelligence gathering mission and not just another exercise in finding new and exciting methods of killing bugs. As a result of the mission profile the assaulting platoon was backed up by intelligence personal from the ONI plus a forensic science team. What the ONI people and the science team had found was extremely worrying. What the Psi Ops officer, who had been attached to the mission force as an after thought, discovered when she 'interrogated' the half dead brain bug that had been captured sent shock waves through the entire Terran command structure.

Within days other missions were launched to try and confirm the information discovered on EG-4605-4. Over a period of several weeks a picture started to form as to what the bugs were doing and why they were doing it. Finally the most recent combat reports from MI raids were studied, hours of combat footage were watched until a picture of what was happening had emerged.

Ever since the Battle of Thule, the Federation knew what happened to the civilian populations of the worlds conquered by the Bugs. However, it wasn't until the raid on EG-4605-5 that the Federation discovered what the unintended consequences of the bug policy towards human civilians was. In fact it appeared pretty clear that it hadn't been until fairly recently that the bugs had stumbled on the advantage their human prisoners had given them. After piecing together thousands of fragments of information, the ONI and the Terran Intelligence Agency believed they had a picture of what was going on. It was, in fact, a perfect example of; 'you are what you eat'.

It had taken the bugs some time to figure it out, but they eventually started to notice that Queens fed exclusively on a diet of human flesh produced more and better warriors and workers. Not only were the Warriors tougher, they were more intelligent and were resistant to some human chemical weapons tailored to bug physiology. Of course the Federation's scientists would eventually design improved chemical weapons, but until then humanity's forces would have to use gas that was designed to kill all carbon based lifeforms. Unfortunately this meant that the Army and the Navy would have to be more careful how it used these weapons for fear of killing human prisoners held deep beneath the surface in bug colonies.

If this intelligence wasn't bad enough the Terran Intelligence Agency discovered the camp on JF-2698-5. By observing the camp from space the TIA and the ONI ascertained that the bugs were trying to 'farm' humans. This had also been seen once or twice on other planets but it appeared that the facility on JF-2698-5 was by far the most successful. This success appeared to be due to the bug's ability to modify their own and other species' biology.

It had long been believed that the so-called 'Brain Bugs' were in fact what remained of the original bug race. That millennia ago the bugs had started to manipulate their own biology until they settled on what they considered was the perfect form and society. It was suspected by human scientists that originally all bugs looked very similar to a warrior bug today and was about as intelligent as a human. Over time bug society had been manipulated into its present form with Brain Bugs in control of the lesser bugs, Queens, Warriors and Workers.

Unfortunately the intelligence services could only collect so much data from distant observation, so, after much discussion it was decided to send in human assets. After several failures which had resulted in the operatives dying either in the jungles of JF-2698-5 or from the bullets of bug weapons. One officer had managed to infiltrate the bug facility, this had been confirmed by satellite observation unfortunately once the officer had been captured by the bugs there had been no more communications from the Terran operative.

0=0=0=0

“So, Frauline Sergeant,” Von Neidermyer asked as she sat with Buffy in Buffy's office, “what do you think?”

“What do I think, L-t?” Buffy replied, “What about, the mission or the bugs?”

“Please give me your thoughts on both.”

“Okay,” Buffy paused for a moment before speaking again, “L-t, I've been fighting the Bugs since the Battle of Klendathu. I was one of the first people to find evidence of what the bugs did with a planet's civ-pop once they'd captured it. I've seen some pretty nasty stuff done by the bugs...so...,” Buffy took a deep breath, “...I'm even more determined than usual to rescue those women and kill every bug I can until there's no more bugs left to kill. What about you, L-t?”

“I agree vith you von-hundred-percent,” Von Neidermyer replied, “the bugs are a stain on the universe that needs to be viped out completely,” it was Von Neidermyer's turn to pause before she asked Buffy her next question, “How do you think the platoon took the news?”

Two days ago the Psi Ops officer attached to this part of the mission, Lt Ayaka Matsumoto, had explained the entire reason for the mission to Buffy. Now Buffy realised that Matsumoto had used their discussion to gauge how the rest of the force would react to the information. Obviously Buffy's reaction had been the right one because Matsumoto had laid the mission out to the platoon, no holds barred.

“L-t, I think the rest of the platoon took it pretty well,” Buffy gave her platoon leader a long slow predator's smile all white teeth and hard eyes, “Its my guess that the platoon is totally determined to kill every bug in the galaxy.”

“You think?” Von Neidermyer didn't sound so sure.

“I've noticed something over the last few years, L-t,” Buffy began to explain, “look, I'm not saying that the male MI aren't committed to winning the war, but I've noticed that female MI totally take the war more personally if you see what I mean?”

“I'm not sure I do Frauline Sergeant, please explain.”

“Let me see...” Buffy thought for a moment, “...yeah! Look at Harm...”

“Harm?”

“Corporal Kendal,” Buffy clarified, “now I used to go to school with Harmony and she was the sweetest, gentlest girl you could ever hope to meet...” at least Buffy had discovered this as she had no personal knowledge of what 'future-Harmony' had actually been like during the years they were supposed to have been at school together, “...not someone you'd chose to back you up if you were about to fight your way into a bug nest.”

“If you say so, Frauline Sergeant,” Von Neidermyer conceded the point.

“But she's about as tough and effective MI as you'd want to have watching your back because I know she'd do everything above and beyond the call of duty to make sure you got back safe. Harm would lay down her life to save you, me, in fact anyone in the platoon because that's the way she is where the bugs are concerned.” Buffy sighed heavily, “I don't know why but all the female MI that I've met are the same, they won't rest until every bug in the universe has been exterminated.”

“I think I understand,” Von Neidermyer replied, “if what you think is true I think its something to do with a racial imperative...”

“Huh?”

“Look,” Von Neidermyer turned towards Buffy, “women are still the primary child rearers. The bugs threaten the survival of any children that a woman has or may have in the near future, therefore the bugs must be destroyed. Only a couple of hundred years ago this would have meant that women would have sent their men folk off to var while they took jobs in the factories and support the var effort that vay.” Von Neidermyer explained, “But now women have the opportunity to fight the enemy directly; added to the fact that the enemy is inhuman and intent on the total destruction or enslavement of the human race, women will fight harder to protect their children or possible children.”

“Like a mother cat fighting to protect her kittens.”

“That's what I think Frauline Sergeant.”

“Yeah, maybe you're right,” Buffy shrugged, “all I know is when I go up against bugs I want MI with me and by choice I want female MI, maybe I was wrong about the segregated units.”

“Like you I'm still not sure on that,” Von Neidermyer agreed.

“Okay, L-t,” Buffy settled back in her chair, “we're got less than a week to plan our part of the mission and less than half the forces we really need...so what are we gonna do?”

“I think that keeping it simple is the best vay to go,” Von Neidermyer pointed out as she called up a holographic map of the area around the bug camp.

“If we try to surround the camp the cordon's going to be pretty thin, L-t,” Buffy pointed out, “I'm thinking we should assault the farm from the inside out.”

“Too higher risk of human casualties,” Von Neidermyer pointed out.

“But it'll give the bugs less time to kill the women in the camp before we can get there,” Buffy countered, “I've seen what happens when the bugs think they're going to lose, they kill their prisoners.”

“Ja I've read the reports...”

“I've seen the bodies,” Buffy explained.

“Look,” Von Neidermyer spoke considering her words carefully, “there are only a maximum of fifty warriors guarding the camp.”

“Fifty that have been spotted,” Buffy rejoined, “There could be another fifty-thousand in storage under the camp.”

One of the difficulties of gauging bug numbers was their ability to put large numbers of warriors and workers 'on ice' until they were needed.

“Honestly,” Von Neidermyer grinned, “Frauline Sergeant do you really believe there are that many bugs guarding the camp?”

“No, L-t, I don't,” Buffy shook her head, “but I do think we'd be foolish to just assume that what we see is what we're going to get.”

“I agree,” Von Neidermyer nodded, “but I still think it would be better to keep any fighting out of the camp, there are five-thousand women in there as far as we know. It would be better to try and draw the bugs away from the camp than to start a fire fight inside the camp...those building are only made of wood, imagine what would happen if they caught fire?”

“Yeah,” Buffy sighed sadly; she could in fact imagine what would happen if one of those building burst into flames, “but if we jump into the camp we'll be able to burn the bugs as they come out of their holes and there won't be a fire fight.”

“I'm sorry, Frauline Sergeant,” Von Neidermyer replied slowly, “and under other circumstances I might agree, but I'm the officer in charge of this mission so it is my responsibility, ve go for the cordon and try to lure the bugs out into the jungle.”

“Okay,” Buffy shook her head slowly, “I think you're wrong but as you say you're the boss, so, how are we going to draw the bugs away from the camp?”

“I'm not sure,” Von Neidermyer admitted, “I was hoping you'd have some ideas.”

“Hmmm,” Buffy studied the map of the camp and its surrounding area, eventually she pointed to a spot on the map, “What's that?”

“Erm,” Von Neidermyer consulted her notes, “it says here that it is the water supply for the camp.”

“Okay,” Buffy replied brightly at the prospect of blowing things up, “what happens if we take out their water supply?”

“Depending how we do it they'd send workers to repair it,” Von Neidermyer.

“Then what happens if we shoot all the workers?”

“They send more this time guarded by warriors.”

“And if we ambush and destroy them?”

“They send more warriors.”

“And we engage them in battle well away from the camp,” Buffy pointed out, “by the time we get to the camp itself there should only be a few bug warriors to mop up...”

“Unless, like you suggest there's another fifty-thousand bug warriors hidden somewhere.”

“In that case L-t,” Buffy said slowly, “we all buy the farm but we make the bugs pay a high price.”

“But of course,” Von Neidermyer agreed, “I like this plan it would also mean we won't have to spread the platoon out so widely.”

“Mass not driblets,” Buffy grinned, “as I believe a German general once said.”

“Indeed,” Von Neidermyer smiled, “so let us assume ve haf viped out the bugs. Our next problem is how to evacuate five-thousand-plus women and their children?”

“Okay,” Buffy thought for a moment, “on the plus side we have our civ-pop who should be able to keep control of things...”

“Twenty-five people to control five-thousand!?”

“Yeah, but from what the intel says they're pretty docile,” Buffy pointed out, “What I'm worried about is that the navy can't get out more than one thousand people an hour.”

“So we have to hold the camp for what...?” Von Neidermyer shrugged, “Five hours?”

“Assuming things go to plan,” Buffy said, “and I'm here to tell you that when you're fighting bugs things rarely go to plan. If we had a full platoon I wouldn't be so worried, but...”

“We haven't,” Von Neidermyer could see Buffy concerns and was as equally worried about them as her acting platoon sergeant was. “Maybe we can get some reinforcements?”

“I wouldn't count on it L-t,” Buffy pointed out, “this is a major operation run on a shoe string against a majorly dug in bug colony. The General in charge won't want to be diverting troops to what he probably thinks of as a 'side-show'.”

“At least we'll have the Jones in direct support,” Von Neidermyer pointed out.

“Best news I've heard all day,” Buffy admitted.

“So to recap,” Von Neidermyer sat up in her chair, “we plan for a landing in the jungle about five miles from the objective...”

“Ten would be better,” Buffy suggested.

“If you think so, Frauline Sergeant?”

“I do.”

“Right, ten miles from the objective, we make our way through the jungle to the water supply.” Von Neidermyer pointed at the map, “set up our ambush, destroy as many warriors as we can before moving in on the camp and starting the evacuation.”

“Sounds totally easy when you put it like that,” Buffy observed.

“No plan survives contact with the enemy,” Von Neidermyer grinned.

“Another German general?”

“Of course,” Von Neidermyer agreed.

“Right I'll work up some tac-sims for how we hope the mission will go,” Buffy said.

“While I go practice calling in 'Final Protective Fire',” Von Neidermyer laughed.

“You know, L-t,” Buffy said quietly as she stood up behind her desk, “I bet we'll come back after this mission, have a beer and wonder why we were so worried.”

“Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.”

“Another German?”

“No,” Von Neidermyer shook her head, “a Roman I think, or maybe a Brit.”

“Okay, Ma'am,” Buffy shrugged, “I'll put those beers on ice and then get on with writing those tac-sims.”

“And I vill practice reading my map!”

“On the bounce, L-t.”

“On the bounce, Frauline Sergeant.”

0=0=0=0


	8. Chapter 8

**TFCT H Jones.**

The platoon had a mere six days to prepare for the mission. While the Jones joined up with the rest of the invasion fleet, Buffy put her troopers through a gruelling series of tactical simulations. Unfortunately she could only put one squad through a tac-sim at a time, the H Jones didn't have the facilities for her to run simulations with all of the platoon at the same time. When her troopers weren't doing simulations they were employed getting suits and weapons ready or training their civ-pop in the correct use of the Hard Suits they'd be wearing when they joined Buffy's platoon on the planet's surface.

With only a day before the invasion was to be launched, the fleet moved in around Ahmadnagar and started to suppress the bug defences. A couple of days earlier Terran heavy naval units had swept into the system and destroyed any bug ships that rose from the planet or that were already in orbit. By this time in the war unless the bugs could mass large numbers of ships they stood little chance against even the relatively small task force the Federation had sent against the planet.

With the bug space forces eliminated the smaller Federation ships like the Jones and the larger troop transports could move in; adding their weight of fire to that of the capital ships as they blasted the bugs on the surface. As the bugs still weren't using missiles there was little in the way of return fire. The bugs now appeared to be using large fighter-like craft that, for all intents and purposes, acted like missiles. However, as these craft rose from the planet's surface to challenge the might of the Federation they were easily destroyed. As usual the bugs kept sending these craft up to meet the forces of humanity until there were no more fighter-missiles left to send.

All known bug nests and troop concentrations were subjected to heavy kinetic bombardment from orbit. Some targets were also targeted by high yield nuclear weapons while others were liberally dosed with heavy concentrations of anti-bug nerve agent. However, everyone knew that as soon as the MI started to land the bugs would climb out of their holes in almost inexhaustible numbers and start to attack the landing force. The only way to get the bugs out of their holes was to actually land troops on the surface. The only other method of recapturing a planet from the bugs was to plaster its surface with nuclear weapons and gas until it became uninhabitable for either bugs or men.

0=0=0=0

“Everything ready, Frauline Sergeant?” Lt Von Neidermyer asked as she clumped into the drop room already in her armour.

“As they'll ever be, L-t,” Buffy replied, “the platoon's suited up and armed, extra ammo has been issued and there's pallets of food, water, power packs, ammo and spare weapons loaded aboard the shuttles to bring down once we're in control of the camp.”

“Very good,” Von Neidermyer said, “shall ve get on?”

“Sure thing L-t,” Buffy nodded, like everyone else she still had her face plate open; coming to attention she turned to face the platoon, “By squads fall in!”

The three squads that made up the truncated platoon formed three ranks with each rank being one squad.

“Platoon...” the platoon braced up at Buffy's warning order, “Platoon, 'shun!” There was a loud clang as the trooper's armoured feet moved on the deck plates. “In open order, right dress!”

While the middle squad remained in place, the front rank took one step forward and the rear rank took one step back. At the same time right arms shot up to contact the shoulder of the trooper to each trooper's right. After a certain amount of shuffling to get into position, Buffy ordered, 'Eyes Front!' and the troopers dropped their arms and came back to the position of attention. Only now there was space to allow Buffy and the L-t to move easily amongst them.

“Platoon ready for inspection, Ma'am,” Buffy announced as she turned towards Von Neidermyer and saluted.

“Thank-you, Sergeant,” Von Neidermyer returned Buffy's salute before she said, “Stand them at ease, please.”

After standing the platoon at ease, Buffy followed Von Neidermyer up and down the ranks as the L-t inspected the platoon. Of course Buffy had already inspected her troopers, so Von Neidermyer found nothing wrong. Coming to the end of third squad, Buffy and Von Neidermyer made their way back to the front of the platoon.

“Okay, Ladies,” Von Neidermyer began her pre-drop speech, “time to burn more bugs, but this time we have five thousand human captives to save. The success of our mission will be judged by the number of captives we rescue and not my the number of bugs we kill or the lightness of the MI casualties...the captives come first. I know every woman here vill do her duty, I pray god that I shall do mine...five minutes for the padre.”

About half the platoon went over to have a quiet word with L/Cpl Judy Brown who was doing duty as the platoon's padre. Buffy walked over to talk to her sister.

“Everything okay, Dawnie?” Buffy asked.

“Not my first drop, Buffy,” Dawn grinned back at her sister.

“Hey!” Buffy sounded a little hurt, “I know but its the big sister's job to look out for the little sister.”

“I'm a good six inches taller than you,” Dawn pointed out.

“I know,” Buffy admitted, “but its the principle of the thing...”

“I know, I'm only kidding,” Dawn admitted.

“Whatever,” Buffy gave Dawn a power armoured shrug, “you keep your head down and don't go hunting medals.”

“And you,” Dawn replied before adding, “Love you Buffy.”

“Love you too Dawn,” Buffy hugged her sister again before stepping back and checking her mission clock, there were only two minutes before they needed to climb into their capsules.

Walking back over to were Lt Von Neidermyer stood Buffy came to a halt beside her officer. Buffy had already said her goodbyes to Harmony the night before, after all there was always a chance that one or both of them would buy the farm today. They'd spent the night together in Buffy's cabin with Harmony only going back to her squad bay a little before revallie after they'd made love one last time and wished each other luck.

“Just like a drill, L-t,” Buffy said quietly, “nothing to worry about,” she checked the time again, “Time, L-t.”

“Carry on Frauline Sergeant.”

“Roger that, Ma'am,” Buffy came to attention, “Platoon!” Every one moved back to there positions, once the three ranks were formed, Buffy called everyone back to attention before ordering, “Attention...by sections...port and starboard...prepare for drop!”

Breaking into two lines of twelve the troopers made their way over to the port and starboard tubes. As each trooper climbed into her capsule the navy drop room crews strapped them in under the watchful eyes of either Von Neidermyer or Buffy. Once all the troopers were safely into their capsules only Von Neidermyer, Buffy and Zoe Smith were the only MI not in capsules.

“Good luck, Frauline Sergeant, Frauline Corporal,” Von Neidermyer shook hands with Buffy and Zoe, “See you on the surface.”

“On the bounce, Ma'am!” Buffy and Zoe replied with a sharp salute.

“Lets go,” Von Neidermyer turned away and headed for her capsule.

“Good luck,” Buffy embraced Zoe.

“Hey Sarge,” Zoe returned her sergeant's hug, “just fink of all the paperwork we're gonna 'ave ta do when all this is over.”

“No way,” Buffy laughed, “if I did I'd never come back!”

Climbing into her capsule, Buffy let the navy crew strap her in and seal her 'egg' tight. Imagining the nitrogen fill her capsule, Buffy waited for the firing sequence to start.

“One minute to go, First Platoon,” Captain Gelson said, before adding, “Good luck, ladies”

“Thank-you, Captain,” Lt Von Neidermyer replied.

“Roger that, how about some music before you go?” there was a click as the Captain switched it on.

Somewhere along the road,  
Someone waits for me.  
Beyond these present storms that blow,  
Waiting patiently.  
No secrets held in an open heart,  
A spirit that soars over mountains.  
Somewhere along the road,  
Someone waits for me.

0=0=0=0

Opening her main chute at just over five hundred feet, Buffy felt the deceleration as the huge almost invisible canopy opened above her and she started to float towards the jungle below. The drop had been almost as uneventful as an exercise on the Moon. The bugs had put up no anti-air fire as they had more important targets to deal with else where. The only problem to spoil what would have otherwise been a perfect jump was that the bugs seemed to be jamming them and Buffy wasn't picking up anything useful on her HUD and comms was severely limited. It couldn't be helped, she told herself, as soon as the navy pin-pointed the bug transmitter they'd destroy in, until then they'd have to do their best with what they'd got.

Originally the plan had called for the platoon to drop about ten miles away from the camp. However, recon of the area had shown that the jungle was particularly thick in the area around the desired drop zone, thick enough in fact to slow down even an armoured trooper. Of course the platoon could have flown to their target using their jets; but, this would have used up most of their fuel and it sort of spoiled the entire idea of a sneaky approach. So, another drop zone had been selected, now the platoon would land about six miles away from the camp and two miles away from the camp's water supply.

Glancing down, Buffy saw the top of the jungle canopy racing towards her, cutting loose her chute, she kicked in her jets before making her way through the branches of the trees and on down to the jungle floor. As she worked her way through branches and tangles of creeper, Buffy wondered why so many of her combat jumps were into jungles. The bugs liked semi-desert planets but Buffy always seemed to find herself fighting through thick undergrowth to get at the bugs.

“Hello all Pink Panther stations this is Nine Alpha, comms check, over,” Buffy called as she landed on the jungle floor and pulled her plasma rifle from off her back.

After about half the platoon had checked in, Buffy told her squad leaders to gather up their people before taking up defensive positions and waiting for either herself or the L-t to get back to them. So far, Buffy had heard nothing from the L-t or Zoe. This didn't worry her much, she just assumed that the bug jamming was preventing either of them from contacting her.

“Hello any Pink Panther stations, any sign of Nine Actual or Nine Bravo, over?” Buffy called after a few more moments, she only got negative replies.

“Hello Nine Alpha this is Nine Bravo, check ya six, out.”

Turning Buffy was just in time to see Zoe land on her jets a couple of yards behind her.

“Good to see you,” Buffy said over the squawk-net, “I thought I'd lost you.”

“Landed in a gully,” Zoe explained, “took me a while to get out, wot's the sitch?”

“No casualties as far as I can see,” Buffy filled her assistant in on the situation, “but I can't raise the L-t or about half the platoon...bug jamming.”

“Thought so,” Zoe agree, “ya want me ta go look for the L-t? Maybe she's landed in a gully like me.”

“Erm,” Buffy glanced at her mission clock, in a few more minutes they'd need to move out, “yeah do a quick sweep of the area, but don't take too long we've gotta move.”

“Roger that...” Zoe started to move but she was interrupted by a call over the platoon net.

“Hello Nine Alpha this is One-two Sierra,” Princess Fiona's voice came clearly over Buffy's comms; Fiona was squad scout for first squad. “It think I've found the L-t, over.”

“Nine Alpha, location, over?”

“Five-one Sierra, about five hundred yards to your north-east, over.”

Buffy looked at her HUD and saw nothing, she turned to Zoe.

“You got anything?” she asked on the squawk-net.

“Nah,” if Zoe hadn't been wearing her suit, Buffy would have seen her shaking her head.

“Okay, follow me, lets see what's wrong,” Buffy jumped into the air and started to fly between the trees in a north-easterly direction.

It took nearly five minutes to locate Princess Fiona and when they did they found her standing over a large hole in the ground. Looking up Buffy saw that a huge gap had been torn in the jungle canopy.

“Okay, what happen here and where's the L-t?” Buffy asked over the trooper's private channel.

Fiona, the Princess from Avalon, said nothing she just pointed at the hole.

“What?” Buffy looked from Fiona to the hole in the ground and back again, it took a second or two for the penny to drop, when it did she said, “Oh crap!”

Looking into the hole the three MI saw a few pieces of bloody, twisted armour and smashed capsule which was all that remained of Lt Helga Von Neidermyer.

“Crap,” Buffy repeated.

“Ditto,” Zoe agreed.

“Poor Sir Helga,” Princess Fiona had never broken her habit of referring to all MI she particularly respected as 'Sir Whoever', they were all gallant knights as far as she was concerned. “Her capsule must have malfunctioned.”

“What do we do now?” Zoe asked just as the jamming stopped; somewhere on the planet there was another new hole where the navy had destroyed the bug transmitter.

“Crap,” Buffy said for the third time before she switched to the platoon net, “Hello all Pink Panther stations this is Nine Alpha, Nine Actual is down, I repeat Nine Actual has bought the farm, I'll be taking over the command of the platoon...” Buffy paused for a moment before continuing, “...we'll continue with the L-t's plan so squad leaders get your people into position for the advance onto the primary objective, over.”

As the confirmations came in from the squad leaders, Buffy, Zoe and Princess Fiona looked down into Lt Von Neidermyer's hole.

“What do we do about the L-t?” Fiona asked.

“Nuffin' much we can do, now,” Zoe pointed out.

Taking a mini-tracer from a pouch on her belt, Buffy tossed it into the hole with Von Neidermyer's remains.

“We'll have to come back for her later,” Buffy said quietly, “until we can...ten-hut!” the three MI snapped to attention at the edge of the hole, “Present arms!”

The three MI held their salute for about thirty seconds before Buffy ordered them to go, remaining for awhile by the hole, Buffy sighed softly.

“At least there'll be another high school named after a hero,” Buffy told the hole, “On the bounce, L-t.”

Turning away from the hole and her platoon leader, Buffy flew off between the trees to take her place at the head of her newly acquired platoon. It was now her job to actually lead and she wondered if she'd be up to the job. Okay she'd led her squad for a couple of years, but now she was responsible for twenty-five lives plus all those captives in the camp. Telling herself this was no time to start doubting herself she landed at a point just ahead of where first and second squads joined; third squad was bringing up the rear with Zoe. Checking her HUD, Buffy saw that her squad leaders had done a good job of getting everyone into position.

“Hello all Pink Panther stations, this is Nine Actual...” Buffy felt odd using the L-t's call-sign, “...this one's for the L-t, all squads advance!”

0=0=0=0


	9. Chapter 9

**JF-2698-5, The Camp.**

“What the hell's going on?” Sasha demanded as she jogged over to where Kiri stood looking confused and frightened.

“I don't know,” wailed the local girl, “I just heard the siren go off for everyone to leave their huts, now I'm here.”

“Okay,” Sasha took a deep breath to calm the feelings of anxiety that had been growing inside her, “has anything like this happened before?”

“No!” Kiri shook her head, “Never.”

Just before dawn the bug sirens had gone off calling everyone from their sleeping huts. As the bugs didn't speak, or indeed make very much noise, they used several different signals to direct their human captives. Stumbling out of her hut into the pre-dawn gloom, Sasha had noticed there were a lot of bugs around, both workers and warriors. The bugs had immediately started to herd the women into groups of a hundred, any woman that didn't move fast enough was shot dead by one of the warriors. Because of the drugs that the bugs had used to keep the women docile there was little reaction to these deaths, except from the few captives that were resistant to the bug drugs.

Once collected into hut sized groups the women were moved to the large open space in the centre of the camp, this area had always reminded Sasha of a parade ground, but she'd never seen a parade like that happening now. Once all the women had been gathered together the bugs formed the women into larger groups of around five hundred. Once again anyone not moving fast enough was summarily shot along with anyone who happened to be standing near the initial victim. Worker bugs moved in to remove the bodies and carry them off to the food processors while the warrior bugs watched the zombie like women ready to shoot at the least provocation. After standing around for what felt like an eternity, Sasha noticed something else which was odd.

“Look,” Sasha pointed across the 'parade ground, “they're even moving the children.”

“They've never done that before,” Kiri pointed out, “I wonder what they've done with the children too young to walk?”

“I'm guessing nothing good,” Sasha replied.

None of what was going on looked as if it was going to end happily for the inmates of the camp, Sasha told herself. Perhaps the Federation attack on JF-2698-5 had begun and the bugs were reacting to it. Not knowing was the worse, she'd been out of contact with her TIA/Psi-ops controller for so long that she'd probably been posted MIA, she was so far outside the loop that she might as well be dead. However, she did know that the Federation were planning on taking back the planet and they'd been planing on doing it soon. So, all she had to do was to stay alive until the navy or the army turned up to rescue her.

“Kiri,” Sasha spoke quietly and rapidly, “we've got to get out of here.”

“Yeah, why don't we just walk out of the main gate?” fear was making Kiri snap.

“Look!” Sasha grabbed the girl by her shoulders and shook her a little, “We've got to find the other women like us and get out of here, okay?”

“Okay,” Kiri nodded having got back a little of her self control, “but how do we get out, you know what...”

Kiri was interrupted as the first of the wooden sleeping huts burst into flame.

“What the feck?” Kiri screamed as she watched the hut being devoured by the hungry flames.

“They're destroying the camp!” Sasha cried, “And if they're doing that it only means one thing...”

“We're going to die?” Kiri sobbed as she fell against Sasha.

“No,” Sasha hugged the younger woman, “this just makes getting out of here more urgent.”

0=0=0=0

**The Panthers.**

There had just been one thing that neither Buffy or Lt Von Neidermyer had taken into account when they'd been finalising their assault plan. They'd not taken into account what they'd do if the bugs didn't react. After moving through the jungle, it had been pretty dark under the tree canopy but their vision aids had enabled them to move to their objective almost as fast as if it had been full daylight. Taking up ambush positions near the water works, Buffy had ordered the big water pipe that took water to the camp, blown just as the local sun was peeping over the tops of the trees.

So far nothing had happened, no bug workers had come to find out what was wrong and been shot down by the waiting Earth troops. No warriors had appeared, which would have happened if Buffy and her troopers had been detected, in fact there'd been no sign that the bugs thought they were being attacked what-so-ever. More than a little puzzled by the bug inactivity, which was very un-bug-like, Buffy had pushed her scouts from first and second squad as far forward as she dared.

“Hello, Nine Actual, this is One-two Sierra, sitrep, over,” PFC Princess Fiona's voice came over Buffy's comms clearly now the bugs weren't trying to jam their communications. 

“Nine Actual, send, over.” Buffy replied hoping that her scouts would tell her what was going on.

“One-Two Sierra, I have the camp under direct observation,” Fiona started her report, “the bugs appear to have gathered all the woman on a big parade ground near the centre of the camp...oh my god!”

“Nine actual,” Buffy called urgently, “what's happening One-Two Sierra?”

“Sorry...” Fiona paused for just a second before continuing her report, “...One-Two Sierra, the bugs are burning the camp huts...”

“Two-Two Sierra breaking in, over,” Kandi Miller the second squad scout called.

“Send, Two-Two Sierra,” Buffy called back.

“Oh crap!” Kandi gasped as the words caught in her throat.

“Keep it together Two-Two Sierra and tell me what you can see, over.” Buffy ordered in what she hoped was a calming voice.

“Okay...” Kandi was only nineteen and this was her first taste of action, “...Two-Two Sierra, the bugs are herding a load of kids into one of those food processor machines, over.”

“Nine Actual,” Buffy called back urgently, “confirm 'food processor', over.”

“Two-Two Sierra, its a food processor just like in the holo-pics, request orders over!”

“Nine Actual, wait...” so it was all true the bugs were farming people as food, “...wait...” she needed to do something and do it fast, unfortunately the only thing she could think to do might mean the death of her two scouts. “Hello, One-Two Sierra and Two-Two Sierra, this is Nine Actual, I want you to put as much fire down on those processors as you can, knock them out. Then I want you to cause as much trouble as you can...but don't buy the farm, guys, I've got better things to do that train new scouts, over.”

“One-Two Sierra, Wilco, out!”

“Two-Two Sierra, Wilco, out!”

Moment's latter Buffy's suit microphones started to pick up the sound of weapons fire and explosions coming from the direction of the camp.

“Hello all Panther stations this is Nine Actual, orders, over.” As Buffy listened for her squad leaders to answer she tried to think of some clever way of dealing with the present situation, but she came up blank. Oh well, she told herself, the L-t did say no plan survives contact with the enemy and look here; we've not even contacted the enemy and everything's Fubar!

“Nine Actual,” Buffy started to issue her orders, “this is what I want you guys to do...”

0=0=0=0

**Two-Two Sierra, Pvt Kandi Miller.**

“Two-Two Sierra, Wilco, out!” lifting her plasma rifle to her shoulder, Kandi aimed at the first machine in the line of six, “God forgive me,” she sobbed as she fired at the machine.

The new M6 plasma rifles were capable of firing an almost continuous stream of plasma at a target, this is what she'd set the weapon to do. The first bolts struck the machine sending molten metal flying in all directions. Although plasma weapons didn't have much in the way of penetrative power like a kinetic weapon. they could and did super heat most materials melting them and allowing follow up bolts to get inside the target and do some real damage. The target machine started to melt and then after a few seconds it exploded. Resting her rifle on the ground in front of her, Kandi looked away from her target as her outside pick-ups brought the sound of children's screams to her ears. Trying to tell herself that it wasn't her fault, that the children would have died in a few more seconds anyway and if it was anyone's fault it was the bugs.

Feeling the nanites crawl across her face as they went for her tears, Kandi remembered where she was and that she had to move. Even now some bug warrior was probably zeroing in on her position in an attempt to make her day even worse than it was. Crawling backwards from her old firing point, Kandi stood up when she estimated that she was out of line of sight of the bugs. When no fire was directed at her, she looked left and right. Choosing her next firing point, Kandi kicked in her jets and flew one hundred yards to her right and came into land behind the root system of a huge tree that had been blown down in some long ago storm. Running up to the tree she selected a new firing point, settling down amongst the body thick tree roots, Kandi once again brought her rifle up into the aim.

From where she was now lying she could clearly see the parade ground as it was being called. Seeing all the women corralled there by the bug warriors, Kandi placed her aiming piper on the closest bug warrior and fired. The bug went up in smoke at the first touch of plasma. Shifting her aim, Kandi fired at the next bug in line, the smoke from the burning huts wafted across the parade square but it was hardly noticeable through Kandi's sights. Firing again and again, Kandi brought down bug after bug until a burst of bug return fire showered her with earth and pieces of tree root. Realising she'd got a little carried away, Kandi backed out of her position and moved off to her right fifty yards.

Her new position wasn't anywhere near as good as her tree position but it still gave her a good view of the parade square. Taking a moment to check her HUD, Kandi saw the rest of the platoon moving up to support the scouts, she also saw One-One Sierra zipping about as she worked closer to the camp. Wondering if she should move in support of the 'Princess', Kandi brought her rifle back up into the aim. This time she placed her pipper on a bug that had started to mow down the captives with its gatling gun. Touching the trigger of her weapon, Kandi sent a short stream of plasma bolts streaking towards the bug. The plasma stream hit the bug blowing off all its legs on the right side before consuming its body in a fire as hot as the sun.

As she looked for another target, Kandi started to wonder why the captives weren't running for cover. Sure she could see a few breaking free of the crowd but shouldn't there be a big, panicking mass running around down there by now? Taking down another bug, she remembered the briefing the Psi Ops officer had given the platoon. The bugs had drugged the women to be docile, this was why all but a few looked as if they knew what they were doing. After burning a couple of more warriors, Kandi shot a few workers before checking her HUD again.

The rest of the platoon was only a couple of seconds away, as a scout Kandi knew she was supposed to stay ahead of the main force and report in on where the bug warriors were. Once again she backed out of her fire position, moved about thirty yards to her right, jumped and kicked in her jets. Flying at high speed and just above the ground, Kandi weaved between the small trees, bushes and tree roots until she came to the edge of a wide blasted area where she grounded. Checking her HUD again, Kandi saw that Princess Fiona was already in the camp moving rapidly between the huts.

Looking across what was obviously a kill zone, Kandi saw no warriors waiting to blast her into blood and junk as soon as she broke cover. The only thing she could see were a few workers that she shot in the hopes of drawing out any warriors who might be hiding near by. When no return fire headed in her direction, Kandi made her way forward as fast as her scout suit would take her. The ground flashed by only a few inches below her feet as she kept scanning for warriors. None appeared and she flew through the camp's perimeter fence hardly noticing it as she did so. Flying through the wall of a hut, Kandi grounded inside. As soon as her feet met the floor boards there was a terrible groaning sound accompanied by the noise of wood splintering and breaking.

“Damn-it!” Kandi cursed; of course the wooden floors wouldn't take the weight of two-thousand pounds of armour and weapons.

Pausing for a moment Kandi tried to think herself out of the, literal, hole she'd got herself into. Unfortunately she'd not come up with a solution when the bug warrior squeezed in through the door. A bug warrior had a leg span of approximately twelve feet, so it took some time to negotiate the human sized door. This was what saved Kandi, the bug couldn't quite bring its weapon to bear, but she could turn enough to shot at the bug. Plasma bolts stitched their way across the bug and the door way. The bug burst into flames as did the wooden walls of the hut at the merest touch of the white hot plasma.

“Damn-it!” Kandi repeated as she struggled to free herself, even if the hut burnt down around her the heat and flames wouldn't harm her while she was in her armour.

Eventually Kandi blasted the floor boards around her with her rifle, before kicking in her jets and flying directly upwards and through the roof. Once out in the open again she resisted the temptation of landing on the roof, she'd probably go straight through it again and end up back in the burning building. Instead she landed on the firm, dusty ground between two huts, Kandi checked both ways for bugs. Seeing none she checked her HUD. At last the platoon had arrived and was moving through the camp, now there were more MI around she found it difficult to pick out the icon that denoted Fiona her sister scout.

“Whatever,” Kandi sighed with relief as she realised she'd survived her first taste of combat.

Bouncing over the hut to her right (the one that wasn't burning), Kandi saw the crowd of bugs hiding between the untouched hut and the next hut in the row. Not being able to see whether the bugs were warriors or workers, Kandi kept flying and left a couple of handfuls of fire pills behind her. Grounding on the opposite side of the hut from the bugs she once again checked she was safe. No bugs appeared and she checked her HUD to see that first squad had moved through the camp while third squad formed a cordon between the camp and the closest known bug nest. Everyone else appeared to be milling around inside the camp. Kandi told herself it was time to rejoin her squad.

“Hello Two-One, this is Two-Two Sierra, requesting permission to rejoin squad.”

“Two-One,” Cpl Lea Jones' voice made a welcome sound in Kandi's helmet, “glad to hear from you again, home on my beacon, over.”

“Two-Two Sierra, roger, homing in now, out.” Checking her HUD, Kandi saw the icon denoting her squad leader start to flash, “Coool,” she sighed with relief.

Just as she was taking a couple of steps before she jumping into the air, Kandi noticed the ground and the wall of the nut next to her explode around her. Stumbling as she turned, she became aware of bug penetrators hitting her suit. Desperately trying to bring her plasma rifle to bear on the warrior firing at her from the hut opposite to where she stood. Kandi managed to trigger her weapon as the first bug slug penetrated her suit. MI suits were good at keeping stuff out, unfortunately they were equally good a keeping things in.

The bug bullet that got through Kandi's defences went straight through her stomach. In all probability if she'd been casevaced within half an hour she'd have survived; her suit was already doing what needed to be done to keep her alive. Unfortunately the penetrator, only marginally slowed by going through Kandi's body, bounced off the inside of her armour and made another large bloody hole through her chest. The bullet bounced through her three more times as her suit fought to control the damage. Eventually nothing her suit's systems could do could save her life and she slumped dead to the ground.

As she died, Kandi's finger had mashed down on the trigger of her plasma rifle sending streams of white hot fire in the general direction of the bug that had killed her. The hut caught fire as did the bug that had shot at her. In her death Kandi had killed her killer leaving her comrades once less bug to worry about.

0=0=0=0


	10. Chapter 10

**The camp.**

“Losses?” Buffy demanded as Zoe landed near by, her jets kicking up a cloud of dust from the parade ground.

“Only one,” Zoe replied as she walked over to stand next to Buffy.

“Who?”

“Kandi Miller, Private, second squad's scout.”

“Darn-it,” Buffy muttered angry at the loss of even one of 'her' troopers while at the same time admitting to herself that it could have been a lot worse, “No one else?”

“Nah,” had Zoe not been wearing her helmet Buffy would have seen her shaking her head, “minor damage to a couple of suits but nuffin' that'll slow anyone down.”

“Good...” Buffy turned to survey the mass of naked women who were silently milling about on the parade ground, while she'd been told what to expect the reality of the situation was more than a little overwhelming, “...look, we've got to start getting these people out of here. Any ETA on the shuttles?”

“I'll find out,” Zoe replied as she stepped away from Buffy and began to talk to the Navy Landing Master in her control shuttle high above the planet.

“Okay,” Buffy said to herself quietly, “time to get organised...Hello all Panther stations this is Nine Actual, orders, over.”

Waiting for her three squad leaders to report in, Buffy quickly went over the next part of the plan.

“Nine Actual,” Buffy started to speak once more, “Orders, One-One I want you to take your squad and form a tripwire cordon about one mile out from my location, over.”

“One-One, wilco,” Harmony's voice came back clearly to Buffy, “but if we do that we're gonna be spread real thin on the ground, Snake.”

“Nine Actual, I know Harm but you'll have to make do for now, I'll send you any spare bodies that I can but until then you and your guys are going to have to keep bouncing around.”

“One-One,” Harmony sighed, but she knew there was no help for it, this mission should have been given to a full platoon not a half strength one, “wilco, out.”

Buffy watched for a moment as Harmony's squad rose into the air before shooting off in six different directions to form the outer cordon.

“Nine Actual, Two-One I want you to start to concentrate these women and get them ready to move to the shuttles, over.”

“Y'do?” Lea Jones, second squads corporal, sounded bemused, “There's thousands of 'em, Snake, over.”

“Over five-thousand,” Buffy confirmed, “but most of them are drugged up to the eyeballs so you should just be able to heard them like sheep, over.”

“Woof, Woof!” Corporal Jones replied doing her famous sheepdog impression, “Wilco, we'll do what we can, over.”

“I know you will,” Buffy replied, “sorry about Kandi, over.”

“Yeah,” Lea replied quietly, “crappy way to die, over.”

“I can't think of a good way, Nine Actual, out.” Buffy hardly paused before issuing her last set of orders, “Hello Three-One, Nine Actual, I want you to take half your squad a secure the landing zone. The rest of your squad can form an inner cordon over looking the cleared strip around the camp, over.”

“Three-One, wilco, you expecting trouble, Snake? Over.”

“I always expect trouble,” Buffy confirmed, “I've got a nasty itchy feeling between my shoulder blades, those warriors didn't fight right, over.”

“I know what you mean,” Chalkie White, third squad leader, confirmed, “they acted way too clever for my liking, over.”

“Keep on the bounce, Nine Actual, out.”

Having got her platoon organised, Buffy turned to look for Zoe.

“What's the word on the shuttles, Zoe?”

“The shuttles from the Jones will be down in five minutes,” Zoe explained, “they've got supplies the civ-pop an' a small landing force to 'elp get the shuttles loaded.”

“Good, thank Captain Gelson for me and inform her of the loss of Miss Von Neidermyer when you next call the ship, what about the transport shuttles from the Nightingale?”

“Sorry, they're still fifteen minutes out, they're keeping stuff like the Nightingale out of harm's way,” Zoe pointed out.

“We need more shuttles,” the nasty itchy feeling between Buffy's shoulder blades was getting worse, “what channel is the Landing Master on?”

“Channel twenty,” Zoe replied, “you feel it too?”

“Bugs?” Buffy would have nodded if she'd not been wearing her helmet, “Yeah, they're out there, the bugs in the camp fought too smart for normal bugs.”

“Like they withdrew instead of fighting to the death?”

“That's it, now let me talk to this Landing Master, we need those shuttles.”

0=0=0=0

Standing at the edge of the crowd next to Sasha, Kiri felt her eyes start to burn as the tears began to roll down her cheeks. It was all over, the Federation had come at last and very soon they'd all be taken away from this terrible place. Taking a deep breath, Kiri brushed away the tears from her face with the back of her hand. As soon as the doctors had reversed everything the bugs had done to her she was going to join the Army or the Navy, she'd make the bugs pay for what they'd done here and on dozens of other planets.

0=0=0=0

Lieutenant Sasha Guskov, watched with pride as the MI flew around the camp trying to organise the recently released prisoners into columns ready for transport to the fleet which was no doubt orbiting the planet right now. Even though she knew the operation to liberate Ahmadnagar had been put into motion, it was still a relief to actually see MI in the camp. Soon she'd be home, soon she'd be able to feel Ayaka's arms around her, soon this nightmare would be nothing but a memory.

0=0=0=0

Landing in the jungle after checking on her squad, Harmony glanced at her HUD to reassure herself that there weren't hordes of bugs crawling between the trees towards her and her over stretched squad. It was days like this when Harmony questioned her decision to join the army and the MI in particular, why hadn't she gone for being part of a K-9 team, she'd always liked dogs. Whatever, she sighed turning her eyes from her HUD to the dense jungle all around. This was really thick jungle, possibly the thickest she'd ever seen and she'd seen a lot of jungle and forest in her time in the MI. The problem was that in this jungle the trees were relatively widely spaced which allowed a lot of sunlight to penetrate to the jungle floor. As a result there was thick undergrowth almost everywhere.

“Hello One-One, this is One-Two,” Fin McCarthy's voice came over Harmony's comms, “I've got movement about fifty yards to my front, over.”

“Movement?” Harmony fine tuned her HUD and checked again for any sign of bugs, there was none, “You sure, I've got nothing on my HUD, over.”

“I've got movement in a thirty degree arc to my front at about fifty yards, all my HUD's telling me is there's movement which I can see, over.”

“Go to thermal imaging, I'm on my way,” Harmony jumped into the air and started to fly as fast as she could towards Fin's location. “Hello One-Two Sierra, did you hear One-Two's last, over?”

“One-Two Sierra, roger that, over,” Princess Fiona's voice called back.

“One-One, join me at One-Two's location, over.”

“Wilco, One-Two Sierra, out.”

0=0=0=0

Crouching behind a tree, Fin watched the foliage in front of her move as whatever it was moved closer. The results of her scan with her thermal imager had proved inconclusive, the only thing her scanners were telling her was there was something out there which she'd kind of guessed. In fact her slayer senses weren't exactly helping either, her inner slayer was screaming at her to fight, but the calm, professional MI in her was telling her to keep her head down and stay on the bounce.

Taking a tighter hold on her plasma rifle, Fin looked at the weapon for a moment before putting it away on her back. If there were really bugs out there by the time she actually saw them they'd probably be too close for her rifle to be fully effective. Instead she pulled her hand flamer and the new flachette gun she'd been issued with for this mission. The flachette gun's magazine was loaded with Snake and Harm's locally modified cartridges and Fin was curious to see how they worked.

A bug warrior burst from between two giant bushes not ten yards away to Fin's left. Lifting her flachette gun, she triggered the weapon twice. The gun bucked in her hand as the empty cartridges ejected out of the right hand side of the weapon. The bug found itself being sprayed with fire pills as the cartridge's payload flew from its stubby barrel. Not bad, Fin thought as the bug burst into flame, but, no sooner had one bug appeared and been killed that another appeared even closer than the first, Fin hosed it down with her flamer before jumping into the air and backing away from the bug attack.

“ONE-ONE, THIS IS ONE-TWO, BUGS! BUGS AT MY LOCATION, AM ENGAGING, OVER!”

0=0=0=0

Resisting the urge to go out and fight at Harmony's side, Buffy watched her HUD for a few moments as she tried to get a feel for how the battle was developing. So far the bugs were only coming from one direction, but bugs were sneaky and there was often no way of telling where they'd pop up next.

“Zoe,” Buffy called over the squawk-net, “how long 'til the Jones' shuttles get here?”

Once the shuttles landed she'd have more people to deal with the captives and a few navy files she could use to cover the landing zone. That would allow her to move some of her people around to face the bug attack.

“About two minutes, Snake,” Zoe replied after a short pause, “we should see 'em any...second...now!”

Looking up at where Zoe was pointing, Buffy saw six vapour trails appear in the clear, blue sky as the shuttles dropped from orbit and entered the atmosphere.

“Cool,” Buffy breathed a sigh of relief, her life had just got a little easier, “Okay; Hello Three-One this is Nine Actual, orders, over.”

“Three-One send, over.” Chalkie White's voice came crisply over Buffy's comms.

“Chalkie, I want you to send four of your guys to support Harm's fight in the jungle, over.”

“Snake, we're gonna be pretty stretched here if you do that,” Chalkie pointed out.

“Shuttles are in bound, so we'll have some navy files to fill in the holes, over,” Buffy reassured her third squad leader.

“Three-One, roger that, wilco, out.”

Glancing around Buffy saw two troopers rise into the air from the camp perimeter and zoom off towards the jungle. Good, Buffy told herself one less problem to deal with.

“Hello One-One, this is Nine Actual,” Buffy called Harmony, “did you hear my last to Three-One? Over.”

“Roger that, Nine Actual,” Harmony sounded distracted, “I need every warm body you can spare, there's bugs everywhere, over!”

“Don't be a hero Harm,” Buffy warned, “if you need to break contact and let the Jones hit 'em, do it over.”

“I'll bear that in mind, Snake,” Harmony replied, “but once I've got my entire squad facing the bugs we'll be just fine, over.”

“If you're sure...”

“I'm sure...”

“Good luck, Harm, Nine Actual, out.”

0=0=0=0

Zapping a bug with a blast of plasma to its face, Harmony used her jets to bounce backwards twenty yards. The bugs kept pressing forward trying to find her flanks so they could get around and surround her line. Now Buffy had sent some of third squad to cover her butt, Harmony would be able to form a firing line with her entire squad.

“Okay, first squad,” Harmony called over her comms, “you heard what Nine Actual said, form a line on me and Fin, lets kick some ugly, scanky, bug butt! Out!”

After shooting a bug who was just about to spray her with bullets, Harmony watched as the little icons denoting her squad moved to form a line either side of her. Good, she thought, with everyone on line she could push back against the bugs who'd been pressing her so hard these last few minutes.

“Okay, people,” Harmony called out as her last trooper joined the end of the line, “lets show these bug bastards. First Squad...odds and evens...ADVANCE!”

0=0=0=0

Waiting impatiently for the shuttle's tail ramp to open, Lt Ayaka Matsumoto readied herself to be the first out of the shuttle. Feeling the shuttle decelerate and go into a hover, Ayaka couldn't but feel excited about the prospect of going into action for the first time in her career. Deep down she knew she shouldn't be here, but she just couldn't stay on the Jones when the people she'd grown to like and admire were fighting on the planet's surface. There was a heavy jolt as the shuttle landed, looking over to the tail ramp, Ayaka saw that it was already opening.

“Okay people,” called the navy load master as she positioned herself behind the supply pallet, “get ready...” the ramp was fully opened now, “...push!”

Lending her weight to the other men and women in the compartment, Ayaka helped push the pallet out of the shuttle and onto the sandy soil of the landing strip. Unhitching her plasma rifle, Ayaka stepped down from the shuttle and set foot on the planet for the first time. Looking around, she saw the other shuttles as the navy crews unloaded them with the help of the civilian specialists. Of the Panthers, Ayaka could see nothing, but she could hear what sounded like a major battle going on over in the jungle about a mile away. Watching closely she saw smoke and flame rise from a patch of jungle and she wondered what was going on, her HUD wasn't integrated with the MI HUDs so she couldn't share their tactical data. Turning again she found herself facing the camp which was situated about half a mile away to the east. Taking a running jump, Ayaka was soon airborne and flying towards the centre of the camp. Even staying low as she was she could see where the bugs had tried to destroy the camp. Having listened in to the MI comms she knew that the bugs had tried to process the camp's inmates into food, but they'd been a little too late and the MI had taken the camp away from them before they could kill more people.

Closing with the camp Ayaka saw the great mass of women as they milled about what the soldiers were calling 'the parade ground'. Having read all the reports Ayaka thought she knew what the problems would be like trying to evacuate all those women. But now she could see the five thousand women they'd been sent to rescue, she had no idea how they were going to achieve their objective, there were just too many of them. Grounding at the edge of the parade ground, Ayaka tried to get a fix on Sergeant Summers, she probably needed some help. If she could take command of the actual evacuation, that would free Sergeant Summers to keep the bugs off everyone's backs.

0=0=0=0

Coming into land next to the perimeter fence, Dawn listened for a while to what was going on over at first squad's battle. To be honest she'd much rather be watching first squad's back than here patrolling the camp's boundary fence. Shrugging under her armour, Dawn unclipped the bug detector from her suit and pressed its tip into the ground by her feet. The bug detector was like a very sensitive microphone that could detect the bugs as they tunnelled through the ground. Too often in the past the MI been caught flat footed as the bugs tunnelled underneath their positions and came up behind them. The detectors had been one of the first tools especially made to combat the bugs.

At first all Dawn could make out were explosions and the noise made by two-thousand pounds of MI trooper landing and generally moving about. Almost giving up, after all the reports said that the ground was too wet for the bugs to tunnel through, Dawn was just about to stow her detector and jump to another location when she heard something. Frowning slightly as she concentrated on the faint sound, she pushed the end of the detector deeper into the ground. It was then she heard it, very faint at first but getting louder all the time. Frying bacon sounds, it was so loud now she could almost taste it. A second or two later Dawn realised what was happening and cursed herself for acting like a raw recruit.

“Hello all Panther stations,” Dawn called over her comms, “this is Three-One Alpha, frying bacon sounds at my location...AAAAGH!”

The ground suddenly opened beneath Dawn's feet and she fell into the mass of struggling bugs as they exited the huge hole that had opened up beneath her.

0=0=0=0


	11. Chapter 11

**The Camp.**

“Hello all Panther stations,” Dawn's voice echoed in her own ears, “this is Three-One Alpha, frying bacon sounds at my location...AAAAGH!”

Falling head over heels, Dawn bounced from one nightmare spider to the next. Through her face plate she could see the muzzle flashes of bug guns and hear the rattle of bug penetrators as they splashed against her suit. Bug blood splattered across her face plate making it hard for her to see what was happening around her. When in close combat the bugs would just keep on firing not caring how many of their own kind they killed. To the bug command even one dead MI was worth a hundred, even a thousand, dead warriors.

Jostled roughly from side to side, Dawn lost track of which way was up, the directional indicators on her HUD spun and danced wildly in front of her eyes. If she knew which way was up she could boost herself out of this arachnid hell. Once free she could leave some high explosive hell of her own behind, but as it was if she fired up her jets she was as likely to fly straight into the side of the hole as she was to break free and clear. During her combat training Dawn's instructors had tried to instil into the recruits that it was better to do something now rather than come up with the perfect solution hours later when it was too late. With this in mind, Dawn drew her hand flamer and fired.

In an instant the world around her was turned into a smoky, flame shot horror as the bugs closest to her burst into flame. Her outside audio pick-ups brought the sound of the bug's breathless screams to her ears as they died, the sound sent a chill down her spine but it didn't stop her from keeping her finger pressed firmly down to the trigger of her flamer. Landing on the floor of the bug tunnel with a jolt, Dawn almost dropped her weapon but managed to keep hold of it, although she did stop firing for a moment.

Sitting on the sandy floor of the tunnel, Dawn found herself surrounded by pieces of burning bug. Slowly the ions on her HUD started to settle down and tell her useful information, like she was a good fifty feet below the surface. Scrambling to her feet, she stumbled over to the side of the tunnel and rested her back against the wall. Catching her breath and trying to stop her body from shaking, she looked up to see the mouth of the tunnel free of bugs. Turning to her left slightly she looked down the long, dark, bug burrow leading to this exit. Her audio pick-ups brought the rustling-chittering sound of approaching bugs to her ears; she switched her face plate from its daylight setting to something more appropriate for the present situation.

This time when she looked down the tunnel, Dawn saw wall-to-wall bugs. Screaming in shock and pain as the hail of penetrators hit her and blew her off her feet, Dawn bounced across the ground until she collided with the wall furthest away from the bug tunnel. Gripping her flamer like a drowning woman holding on to a life belt, Dawn once again mashed down on her flamer's trigger. The first rank of bugs bust into smoky flame as they died and shrivelled up into blacked balls, but the others just kept on advancing firing their gatling guns as the came.

Bug bullets ricocheted off Dawn's suit to bury themselves in the tunnel walls, knowing that her luck was running out and that eventually a bug would get a good fix on her and blast its way through her armour, Dawn tried to come up with a solution to her present problems. Thinking she had it, she kept firing with her flamer while her left hand started to pull a grenade from her utility belt. Activating the grenade she tossed it towards the advancing bugs.

0=0=0=0

**The Surface.**

Allowing herself a small smile, Buffy congratulated herself on pulling the mission off. It had been touch and go there for a while with the L-t buying the farm and the bugs not playing the game by walking into the MI's trap. But now things were starting to settle down; the civ-pop had the captives under control. The Jones' navy files had landed supplies and had taken over security at the landing zone from her troopers. This meant she had a reserve, okay it was only Chalky White and one of her troopers, but even a reserve of just two MI was better than nothing. Out in the jungle, Harm now had someone to watch the rear of her squad and she'd been able to counter attack and throw the bugs back about five hundred yards. Best of all the big shuttles from the Nightingale would be landing in two or three minutes and they'd be able to start evacuating the captives in large numbers.

“Hello all Panther stations,” Dawn's voice came over Buffy's comms, “this is Three-One Alpha, frying bacon sounds at my location...AAAAGH!”

The call froze the blood in Buffy's veins for just a moment. Once again Buffy had to stop herself from rushing to her sister's aid, she had to remember she was Nine Actual now and she couldn't just rush off like a squad leader making pick-up on one of her downed troopers, she had to stay and command her platoon. Very soon the choice of rescuing Dawn or staying where she was became moot as about a ‘swarms’ worth of bugs appeared from between the half destroyed huts to Buffy's west. As soon as the bugs appeared on the edge of the parade square they started to fire into the packed ranks of captives. Women were literally cut in half by the streams of bullets the bugs fired into the mass of humanity, scores fell as the almost solid lines of carbon penitrators cut into the huddled mass.

“ZOE!” Buffy yelled over the squawk-net, “GET THOSE PEOPLE OUTTA HERE!”

“On it Snake!” Zoe replied as she zipped off at high speed to help the civ-pop get the captives out of the line of fire.

“CHALKY?”

“Here Snake!” the sound of Chalky White's steady voice had the effect of calming Buffy.

“Who you got with you?” Buffy asked in a more considered tone of voice.

“Suzy-R, actually with me, but Em Garcia should be around somewhere too.”

“Garcia here,” called a voice as a smaller than average MI suit landed next to Buffy.

“Okay people,” Buffy took a deep breath, “watch my beacon...advance with me.”

0=0=0=0

**The Parade Ground.**

“Hello all Panther stations,” Ayaka heard the unfamiliar voice come over her comms, “this is Three-One Alpha, frying bacon sounds at my location...AAAAGH!”

Frying bacon sounds, Ayaka asked herself; she'd been helping the civilian specialists move the dull eyed captives into blocks and towards the landing zone when the call had come through. After a shaky start the mission appeared to be going more or less to plan. Ayaka made a mental note to congratulate Sergeant Summers on her performance under such difficult circumstances. She also congratulated herself on reading the Sergeant's character so accurately, there could well be a battlefield commission in this for the young NCO. Still wondering why anyone should be talking about 'frying bacon', Ayaka frowned as she saw the first of the captives literally explode at the touch of the bug bullets.

“What the freakin' hell?” Ayaka asked herself as she turned to see bug warriors boil from between the fire damaged huts at the edge of the parade ground.

To Ayaka it seemed like all the bugs in the universe were heading right towards her and it was only with great strength of mind that she stopped herself from panicing and running away. She wasn't a line officer, sure she'd done her basic combat training but that was years ago, she'd never been in combat and the last time she'd fired a weapon was on the ranges at Sanctuary Base. Pulling her plasma rifle from off her back, Ayaka went down on one knee as she brought the weapon up to her shoulder. Okay, so her rifle wasn't as effective as those used by the MI and she was only wearing a hard suit, but she could still burn bugs. Placing the aiming piper on one of the lead bugs, she fired a short burst and watched in satisfaction as the bug she'd been aiming at exploded into a mist of pinkish-grey body fluids.

0=0=0=0

**The Jungle.**

Grounding next to the trunk of a huge tree, Harmony took a moment to check on her HUD. Having driven the bugs back about five-hundred yards, first squad was in a rough line about half-a-mile long. The half squad of third squad Buffy had sent to back her up was about two-hundred yards to her rear spread out over her half-mile line to make sure no bugs got around her flanks and attacked them from behind, or 'buggered her from the rear' as she usually put it when she was talking to Buffy.

Turning around to look back the way they'd come, Harmony saw that she and her guys had left a trail of destruction behind them. Most of the under brush had been incinerated leaving only the smouldering, smoke stained trunks of the bigger trees standing. In amongst the charred remains of the jungle, Harm could just make out the corpses of what were probably hundreds of bug workers and warriors. The sight of the dead workers made Harmony frown for a moment, the bugs only used workers in combat when they were trying to fool the MI into doing something stupid. Abruptly Harmony's eyes snapped up to her HUD again searching for anything out of place. Within seconds she was shocked to see movement in the jungle all around her isolated force.

“Damn-it!” Harmony snapped, she hated to be fooled like this, “Okay everyone, totally shut up!” she silenced the stream of contact reports coming into her, “Third Squad you're now like, lead, attack towards the camp.”

“On it!” replied L/Cpl Harris crisply.

“Fin, you take your half squad and back up Harris, I'll totally command the rear guard.”

“Got that Harm,” Fin called as she started to organise her half squad,

“On the bounce people,” Harmony called as she started to move to cover the rear of her people, “we've totally got loads of bug butt to kick...much!”

0=0=0=0

**The Tunnel.**

Feeling the shock wave of the grenade's explosion wash over her, Dawn uncurled from the ball she'd curled up into and saw the tunnel full of smoke and dust. In the confines of the tunnel her grenade must have killed dozens of bugs, but unfortunately she knew there'd be more to take their place soon enough. Preparing another grenade, she threw it as an uninjured bug appeared out of the billowing dust and smoke. Tossing the grenade passed the bug she used her flamer on the 'leaker' and watched in satisfaction as the bug burst into flames.

“That's for Mom!” Dawn yelled even though she knew the bugs wouldn't understand her even if they could hear her.

A burst of bug fire chewed up the wall above her head and Dawn decided that it was time for her to move. Running across the chamber to stand next to the mouth of the tunnel, she tried to figure out what to do next. While she did this she threw another grenade down the tunnel, perhaps with just a little luck she'd block it up. While the bugs were digging it out maybe she could escape and rejoin her buddies on the surface.

It was then that the thought occurred to her that there was no guarantee that the bugs hadn't opened more holes, that the surface wasn't covered with alert and angry bugs, if it was, going to the surface would only end with a very dead PFC Dawn Summers. No, strange as it might sound without knowledge of what was happening on the surface she was probably safer down here. Her HUD was telling her nothing about what was happening up top and very little about what was happening down below.

Switching her HUD to thermal imaging, Dawn risked a look down the tunnel. Although the tunnel was full of dust she could just make out the heat signatures of bugs at the far end. Obviously she'd been right, the bugs had other exits and had abandoned their attack along this tunnel. This thought made Dawn frown, that was very atypical bug behaviour; normally the bugs just kept coming until they won or they all died. Walking over to the blackened corpse of a bug, Dawn picked up its weapon and sent a long burst of fire down the tunnel towards the blobs of colour at the far end. After firing off a couple of thousand rounds, Dawn dumped the weapon and fell to the ground.

The bug answer fire wasn't anywhere near as intense as she'd expected it to be and it soon faded out completely, once again Dawn frowned. The bugs simply weren't playing by the 'Bug Play Book', normally something like what she'd just done would provoke more than a few hundred rounds in retaliation. What to do, she asked herself. Remembering her tactics instructor back a Camp Edith Cavell, Dawn recalled him saying that when a defence seemed pointless the best thing a trooper could do was counter attack. It was what Zoe and herself had done on New Holland, only there they'd been convinced they were both going to buy the farm and have high schools named after them. Just for a second, Dawn wondered what would happen when there were no more schools left to name, perhaps they’d start on community centres.

Today, Dawn wasn't convinced she was going to die. The bugs were acting all screwy, she had plenty of power, fuel, ammo and weapons. Yes, she could stay down in this hole, she was fairly safe, but being safe wasn't what the Federation paid her to be, it was her job to make sure other people were safe. So the time had come to do something 'heroic', to put her life on the line for the common good.

Climbing back to her feet Dawn cast around for her plasma rifle, seeing the weapon sticking out from under a dead bug she went over and pulled it free. Checking the weapon out, she found it was still functioning, these new MK6's were really tough. Putting her rifle against her shoulder, Dawn started to advance down the tunnel towards the coloured blobs of bugs at the far end. The time had come for her to earn her pay for the month...plus she'd always wondered what the inside of a bug nest looked like.

0=0=0=0

**Ayaka.**

Lying on the ground, Ayaka fired at the bugs that were firing from cover around the side of a hut. This was very strange, she told herself as she set the hut on fire with a short burst of plasma. Normally the bugs didn't bother with refinements such as taking cover. Normally they just kept coming, at least that's what she'd read. Firing at another bug, Ayaka was just about to move to a new position when the boots of an armoured suit landed in front of her. Looking up she saw the squat form of a MI trooper standing over her, picking out the name plate on the front of the suit, Ayaka read the name 'SGT SUMMERS'.

“Well done L-t,” Buffy called as she looked down at the Psi Ops officer, “but its time for you to go; we'll deal with the bugs, you help get the survivors onto the shuttles.”

“No, Sergeant,” Ayaka climbed to her feet, “it is I who should say 'well done' to you!” even as bug bullets kicked up dust all around them, Ayaka bowed formally to Buffy, “Well done!”

Turning, Ayaka ran across the parade square to where the civilian specialists were herding the last of the captives towards the shuttles. The parade square was littered with piles of bodies, there must have been hundreds of women who'd been shot down by the bugs. There bodies lay ripped apart by the high velocity rounds that the bugs used, their blood had soaked into the sandy soil turning it into red-brown mud. Brought to a shocked halt, Ayaka's eyes happened to fall on the naked body of one particular woman.

Gasping, Ayaka recognised the woman, even with her body distorted by the effects of bug fire and what the bug scientists had done to her, she'd recognise Sasha anywhere. Sobbing, Ayaka fell to her knees next to the body of her dead lover, taking one of Sasha's hands in her own she held it to her heart. For a minute, perhaps two, Ayaka knelt frozen next to her lover's body as bullets whipped through the air above her head.

Slowly Ayaka let go of Sasha's hand, taking a moment she straighten out her girlfriend's body and crossed her arms over her chest. Standing up slowly, she ignored the bug fire that still swept the parade ground. After bowing deeply over her lover's body, Ayaka turned to face the bugs. Taking a firm grip of her plasma rifle, she kicked in her jets and started to fly towards the bug positions.

“BANZAI!” Ayaka screamed in fury as she flew to her rendezvous with her ancestors.

0=0=0=0


	12. Chapter 12

**The Jungle.**

Pausing in the cover afforded by another huge tree trunk, Harmony took a moment to study the tactical situation on her HUD.

“Coool!” she smiled to herself.

Alex Harris' and Fin's half squads were making good progress towards the camp, as soon as they fought their way to the edge of the jungle they'd be able to cover the rest of, 'Harmforce' as they withdrew to the camp. Her own half squad was holding the bugs back even though the bugs were pressing them hard.

Focusing on the world outside of her suit for a moment, Harmony risked peeping around the tree. Ducking back quickly as the bugs sent a blizzard of fire in her direction, Harmony decided that 'here' was not a good place to be. Tossing a grenade around the tree, she kicked in her jets and flew upwards at and angle of about forty-five degrees. Sheltered from the effects of the explosion as the grenade as it tore a bloody hole in the bug ranks, Harm flew over to the next tall tree. Landing on a big, thick branch, Harmony heard the tree creak under her two-thousand pound weight, she wouldn't be able to stay there for long. From her new vantage point, Harmony could see over the tops of most of the trees around her, looking in the direction from which the bugs appeared to be coming from she saw something that made her stop and stare for a moment in amazement.

“What the freakin' fuck!?” Harmony gasped, “Like, totally, where the feck did that come from?”

Just over two-thousand yards away, or at least that's what her range finder told her, Harmony could see the bulk of a bug transport ship half buried amongst the jungle trees

“Did no one else notice the, like, big honking, bug, starship...much!?” Harmony asked over an open microphone.

Not getting an immediate reply, Harmony swapped her plasma rifle for her missile launcher. Resting the weapon on her shoulder, she read off what ammunition she had available. Smiling Harmony saw that not only did she have twelve HE missiles available she also had two mini-nukes. 

“This'll totally spoil their day,” Harmony sniggered as she dialled up the first mini-nuke and sighted on the starship, “Hello all Panther stations, this is One-One, Nuke-Strike in five...four...” Harm pulled the first trigger to let the missile see its target, “...three...” the missile bleeped at Harmony telling her it had locked on, “...totally...” Harm took up the pressure on the second trigger, “...firing...NOW!”

The missile shot from her launcher and headed straight and true towards the starship, realising that very soon her tree would be a 'bad' place to be, Harm jumped and headed towards the ground and cover as fast as she could. Ignoring the bug rounds that clanged against her suit, Harmony landed and dived for the floor of the jungle. Burying her face in the leaf litter she was just in time to feel the heat wave followed by the blast wave wash over her. The mini-nuke was a relatively small weapon so out by Harmony it didn't do very much damage. Looking up Harmony saw that the explosion had started a few small fires and ripped some of the smaller branches and tons of leaves from the trees. But the main effect of the weapon was that all the bugs she could see were all standing around as if stunned.

“YIPPEEEEEEE!” Harmony cheered, “I gotta Brain, I totally gotta BRAIN!”

“Calm down Harm,” Buffy's voice came over the squawk-net, “I know you've got a brain, now what's going on over there?”

“Y'know that nuke I just fired?”

“Uh-huh,” Buffy replied.

“It musta taken out the bug brain controlling the warriors over here...”

“Well done Harm!” Buffy cried, “You sure its not just normal blast effects?”

Bugs were vulnerable to the blast effects of large explosions, they acted like they were concussed for a few minutes afterwards.

“Sure,” Harmony replied happily, “there musta been a bug brain inside the ship, they're all fucked, Snake, I'm gonna totally take a look.”

“Careful, Harm,” Buffy warned, “I don't want to lose you.”

“I'll be totally careful, off.”

Swapping her launcher for her plasma rifle, Harmony jumped intending to make a high bounce, she wasn't about to trust the trees again with her weight. Shooting up through the branches, Harmony eventually came out into clear air. Looking in the direction of the starship, she saw a small mushroom cloud hanging over the wrecked ship. Even the smallest starships were 'big' and a bug transport was far from small. Like all nuclear weapons a mini-nuke was pretty devastating, but it wasn't as devastating as even a small tactical nuke. However, it was powerful enough to destroy a good half of the bug starship. The bug craft looked as if some giant creature had taken a huge bite out of the middle of the ship. Harmony congratulated herself and wondered if Buffy would let her paint a bug starship on the side of her helmet.

Realising that she was hanging around in mid-air making a target of herself and using up fuel, Harmony dropped slowly towards the surface. Landing she looked around to see bug warriors wandering around in confusion. Even without a brain bug directing them the warriors could still be dangerous, however, in their undirected state they reverted back to their primitive form and appeared to forget how to use their weapons. However, a couple of dozen even unarmed warriors could still kill a trooper, so Harmony decided not to take any chances. Shooting down the dozen or so bugs closest to her, she headed off to rejoin the rest of 'Harmforce'.

“Hello, One-Two and Three-Two, this is One-One, what are the bugs doing at your locations, over.”

“One-Two, headless bugs here, over,” Fin called back.

“Three-One, looking pointless here too, over,” Alex confirmed.

“Cool,” Harmony smiled feeling very proud of herself, “that's totally cool, look we wanna RV at...” Harm paused as she picked a spot from the map projected by her HUD, “...grid, 949007...over.”

Fin and Alex repeated the grid reference back to Harmony and gave ETA's for them and their teams to reach the RV point.

“Roger,” Harm continued to speak, “once there we'll head back to the camp and join up with the main force. Keep an eye out for any bugs who still might be totally functioning an' burn the bastards, out!”

Weaving between the trees at high speed, Harmony (unlike an Imperial Jet Bike rider) missed every tree trunk that loomed up in front of her. Checking her HUD she saw that the three troopers that made up her team were either keeping pace with her or were slightly ahead of her. Distracted by having to fit herself between two closely growing tree trunks, Harmony never saw the bug warrior as it lifted its weapon and drew a bead on her.

Not long after the bugs had first started to eat humans they'd noticed certain changes in themselves. At first it was only the brain bugs who found they could project their thoughts further and to control more warriors and workers than they'd been able to previously. Very soon Bug scientists started to investigate and experiment. It took them a couple of years but they found that a queen fed exclusively on humans produced tougher more intelligent warriors. This meant that should a warrior bug's controlling brain bug get killed it could still function instead of reverting to its primitive form. True the warriors still needed a brain bug to direct them, but individual warriors would still fight and use their weapons effectively.

Whizzing between the trees Harmony was just planning out how she'd deploy her forces for the move back to the camp when the jungle around her seemed to explode. Branches shattered to match wood as bug bullets tore them apart. Penetrators rattled against her armour blowing her off course and making her fly into a tree. Luckily the tree wasn't one of the giants that grew in this part of the jungle. Colliding with the tree it shattered unable to resist two-thousand pounds of MI trooper flying at fifty miles an hour.

Her jets cutting out, Harmony fell to the ground, hitting the surface with a bone jarring 'THUD!' Groaning, she rolled onto her side and checked her medical readouts for any serious damage to herself and her suit readouts for any damage to her suit. Finding that both herself and her suit, while a little shaken, were both in rude health, she grabbed her rifle and started to look for the bug that had caused her to crash.

“Anyone out there?” Harmony called over the squawk-net as she slowly and painfully pushed herself to her feet, “There's still some Bugs out here shooting back, I got shot down.”

“You okay, Harm?” Fin asked, “Do you need help?”

“No, I'll be...” Harmony started to reply but was interrupted by the appearance of the bug warrior who'd already scored a hit on her, “...BUGS!”

Harmony screamed as she turned to bring her plasma rifle to bear. Her aiming pipper settled on a point in the middle of the bug's eye cluster and she fired just as the bug fired. Harmony's first plasma bolt penetrated the bug's hide and fried what passed for its brain. However, the bug kept firing even though it was effectively dead; through out the war many MI had been killed or wounded by what, for all intents and purposes, were dead bugs.

The stream of bug penetrators hit, Harmony in the stomach at a rate of three-thousand rounds a minute or fifty rounds a second. Although the bug was only able to keep its weapon on target for two seconds this meant that about one-hundred rounds hit Harmony's suit. Every round struck within a three inch circle, the 5mm penetrators chewed away at Harmony's armour until one round finally penetrated and punched a large hole in Harmony's belly. Knocked off her feet again, Harmony landed in the undergrowth about three yards away from the dead bug who had now relaxed its death grip on its trigger.

Crashing to the ground, Harmony screamed as the bug bullet bounced around inside her and her suit. The bullet went right through her to bounce off the back plate of her suit and back into her body. It was at this point Harmony had a little luck, Instead of slashing its way through her body again it lodged itself between two of her ribs and stayed there.

“Harm, are you okay?” Fin's voice echoed around inside Harmony's helmet; although she tried to reply, Harmony couldn't seem to catch her breath. “Harm?” Fin repeated her voice sounding more concerned by the second, “Hello One-One this is One-Two, sitrep, over!” Fin called more formally, still getting no reply, she called her platoon leader, “Hello Nine Actual, this is One-Two, One-One is down, myself and call-sign One-Two Alpha will make pick up, over.”

“Nine Actual,” Buffy struggled to keep the tremor out of her voice, “roger that, One-Two, good luck, out.”

0=0=0=0

**The Camp.**

Knowing she had to keep her mind on the job however much she wanted to rush out and find Harmony, Buffy fired an HE missile at a hut about two hundred yards away that the bugs had been using as cover. Although the bugs in the jungle had appeared to stop fighting or at least stopped fighting effectively, the bugs in the camp were still battling on and doing it in a most un-bug-like way. The bugs she was facing were employing basic principles like 'fire and movement', taking cover and even retreating. Normally the bugs just came at you until there were either no more bugs or MI left to fight.

The little missile hit the barrack hut and blew it to pieces exposing the warriors that were using it as cover. As soon as the bugs were exposed, Private Garcia (Em to her friends) opened up with her plasma rifle cutting the bugs down as if they if they were corn. However, the MI didn't have it all their own way, a hurricane of return fire forced both Buffy and Garcia to take cover. Lying on the ground next to a burning barrack hut, Buffy readied her missile launcher again, she noted that she only had three HE left, but on the plus side she still had her ration of four mini-nukes, unfortunately the range was too close to risk using a nuke.

“FIRE IN THE HOLE!” Buffy yelled as she sent one of her HE missiles streaking towards the centre of the bug mass; the bugs might be fighting clever but they still hadn't mastered the art of dispersing their forces.

The missile exploded killing about a dozen bugs outright and wounding another six or seven. The uninjured bugs retreated into a drainage ditch while the injured bugs kept the MI's heads down with covering fire.

“That's cheating,” PFC Garcia complained as she and Buffy shot the injured bugs with well aimed plasma bolts.

“I know,” Buffy agreed, “darn pesky bugs they never fight fair!”

Checking her HUD to see how Chalky White and Private Suzy Robinson were doing over near the landing strip, Buffy happened to glance around behind her. Closing her eyes at the sight of what she saw, Buffy shook her head in sorrow and frustration. In the few minutes that the bugs had had when they'd first counter attacked they'd turned their weapons on the captives. The fire from dozens of bugs firing thousands of rounds had cut in to the crowd of captives causing horrific casualties. To make it worse the women had just stood there as the streams of bug rounds blasted into there bodies cutting them down like wheat to the scythe. They'd not panicked and started to run they'd just stood there waiting placidly to be killed.

Miss Grimsdyke had called Buffy with some rough casualty figures, she estimated that a good half of the captives were killed or badly injured, she couldn't tell for certain. On the plus side the evacuation had gone quicker and more smoothly than anyone could have thought. This was mainly due to there not being so many captives to get on the big medical shuttles and the drugs the bugs had used to keep the women docile.

“Boss!” Garcia called breaking into Buffy's dark thoughts.

“What's up?” Buffy turned to face her front again only to see a couple of hundred bugs skirmish towards their position using all available cover. “Damn-it!” Buffy snapped as she read off the range to the centre of the bug force, two-hundred-a-fifty yards read her range finder. “All stations, all stations,” Buffy called, “this is Nine Actual, nuclear detonation, heads down, danger close, danger close!”

As Buffy fused one of her mini-nukes she smiled at the irony of doing exactly what she had yelled at the L-t for doing in the tac-sim. Satisfied that the missile's warhead was set for a close range air burst she hefted the launcher on to her shoulder.

“FIRING...NOW!”

It only took the missile a second maybe two to reach the point where it had been told to detonate, flinching from the blindingly bright flash as the weapon exploded, Buffy found herself blown off her feet and flung into a hut fifty feet behind her. The hut collapsed as the heat and blast wave hit it and burning baulks of wood fell on to her where she came to rest. Having landed heavily, her head hit the side of her helmet knocking her out for a moment or two.

“Are you okay, Boss?” Em asked as she pulled scorched and blackened timbers off Buffy's prone form.

“Yeah sure,” Buffy replied with more confidence than she felt, it was awfully dark inside her helmet, “did we stop them?”

“Sure thing Boss,” Garcia replied, “smoked their buggy ass's.”

“Em...” Buffy looked around, she could see nothing, “...we're out in the open, right?”

“Sure thing, Boss,” Garcia replied sounding slightly puzzled.

“Damn,” Buffy sighed, she must have been looking right at the nuke when it went off, “never mind,” Buffy laughed humourlessly, “the blindness goes away after a while...doesn't it?”

0=0=0=0

**The Tunnel.**

Firing on full automatic, Dawn burst into the chamber at the end of the tunnel which led to the exit she'd fallen into. Bugs died all around her as the white hot bolts of energy played over them. Some burst in to flames at the merest touch of her weapon, others exploded into spectacular fountains of body parts and fluids, still others simply slumped to the floor dead. Finding herself with no more targets for a moment, Dawn was greeted by the surprising sight of bug warriors running away.

“Cheaters!” Dawn called after the running bugs even though they couldn't hear her.

Alone now in a large chamber, apart from all the dead bugs, Dawn tried to think what to do next. There were three tunnels leading off the chamber. One led to the surface about a dozen yards away while the other two lead to whatever was at the end of the tunnels, probably more bugs she told herself. The exit called to her like a siren's song, but she resisted the urge to scramble to the surface telling herself she could help her comrades more by turning the bugs off at source.

Spinning, Dawn brought her rifle up into firing position as a couple of dead bugs moved. Holding her fire until she could see what was going on, Dawn found herself looking at the bloated body and tiny legs of a Brain Bug. Brain Bugs couldn't move very well without the help of a couple of worker bugs, their legs were simply too small and weak. They also couldn't use weapons and their natural weapons were simply residual and useless.

“GOTCHA BRAINY!” Dawn pounced on the Brain Bug and ignoring its weak struggles, started to drag it towards the exit; her thinking was that if she had the brain it wouldn't send any more warriors to attack her or her comrades. “Look here, Brainy,” Dawn rested the muzzle of her plasma rifle against the middle of the bug's eye cluster, “I don't know if you can understand me, but if I see one warrior or worker, you're gonna be the first to die...ca-peesh?”

0=0=0=0

**Author’s Note:** 'Ca-peesh'; I know this is the wrong spelling but its the right phonetic pronunciation for what Dawn is trying to get across to the bug. In all likelihood neither Dawn or the Bug can speak Italian. I'm also fairly certain the bug has never watched any Mafia based dramas. 


	13. Chapter 13

**The Camp.**

Stepping carefully between the bodies, Ayaka found Sasha and knelt down beside her, reaching out with an armoured hand she pushed her dead lover's hair away from her face. Taking the bunch of wild jungle flowers she'd collected she placed them between Sasha's hands where they rested across her chest. Sitting back on her heels, Ayaka opened the face plate of her Hard Suit and sighed sadly.

“I am sorry my love, but I will not be able to join you as soon as I might have wished,” Ayaka told Sasha's body, “it seems the fates have other work for me to do before I can see you again.”

Wishing only to join her lover and her ancestors, Ayaka had tried to get herself killed; she'd exposed herself to bug fire, she'd fought like a soul possessed, but even though her hard suit was pitted and scared by enemy fire she'd survived unharmed. Kneeling beside her lover's body, Ayaka looked out across the parade ground and its carpet of bodies. 

The Federation invasion of Ahmadnagar, had been successful, yes the fighting would go on for weeks, maybe even months but the bugs were cut off from help and they would eventually be exterminated. The mission to liberate the human captives was already being hailed as a great success even though almost half of the prisoners had been killed or wounded and the survivors would need many months and a lot of medical care to recover.

All this, again Ayaka's eyes went from her lover's face to the piles of bodies that lay all around her, would soon be but a footnote in history. The day twenty-five female MI jumped onto a planet in an attempt to save five thousand bug prisoners, the newsies would lap it up and the number of female recruits to the military and especially the MI would sky-rocket; just as The Brass had planned it would.

“Whatever, my love,” Ayaka said quietly, “the end justifies the means, more soldiers will mean the war ends more quickly and the less people will have to suffer...”

“Are you alright, Ma'am?”

Ayaka turned at the sound of the voice, behind her a Navy Corpsman walked towards her across the carpet of bodies.

“Yes thank-you, I am well enough,” Ayaka replied as she got to her feet, she half turned towards the Corpsman and gestured to the body at her feet, “This is the body of Lieutenant Sasha Guskov, she is a hero, look after her well...”

Walking away from the Corpsman, Ayaka headed towards the landing zone; it was time to get on a shuttle and go back up to the H Jones, there was still a lot of work to be do before she could see Sasha again.

0=0=0=0

**A Shuttle.**

Sitting in the back of one of the Jones' shuttles, dressed only in her body suit, Buffy let one of the Jones' Corpsmen fuss around her while he put a bandage over her eyes. To be honest she didn't know why he was bothering the CPO in charge of the Casualty Evacuation Team had run a medical scanner over her and told Buffy that her eyes would recover once the Ship's Surgeon had treated them. In the mean time she would have to put up with the indignity of being treated like some sort of mentally defective invalid. Why was it medical professions seemed to think that just because you were injured you lost the ability to make even the simplest decision? Hearing the sound of armoured boots clumping towards her across the deck plating, Buffy turned her head towards the sound.

“Who's there?”

“Zoe.”

“Good to hear a normal voice,” Buffy sighed with relief.

“Normal?” Zoe queried.

“Yeah,” Buffy gave a resigned laugh, “someone who isn't talking to me like I'm a retarded five-year-old.”

“Not somefin' you're used to, huh?” Zoe stood in front of Buffy and opened her face plate so they could talk without fear of being heard over the comms, “Wot with ya whole never gettin' sick fing.”

“Yeah,” Buffy agreed, “and I always hated hospitals anyway.” 

“The Chief tells me you'll be fine as soon...”

“Enough of the small talk, Zo,” Buffy sat back in her seat, “I'll be fine in a few days. Now tell me what's going on, what's the butcher's bill?”

“Three dead, five injured and a lot of suits will need replacing or a major overhaul,” Zoe reported.

“Three dead?” Buffy asked hesitantly.

“Yeah...”

“Okay that's the L-t, Kandi...” Buffy paused for just a moment fearing the answer she'd get to her next question, “Who...who else?”

“I'm sorry Buffy,” Zoe replied quietly.

“Tell me,” Buffy ordered.

“Looks like a bug ambushed Harm and blasted through 'er armour,” Zoe tried to be gentle but there was really no good way of telling someone their best friend had died, “Fin an' Daze made pick-up, but by the time they got to 'er there wasn't anyfin' anyone could do, she'd bled out.”

“Harm...” Buffy tried to speak but found she couldn't; her friend and lover was dead and she'd never see her beautiful face again.

“You wanna be alone for a moment?” Zoe asked not knowing quite what to do or say; sure she'd lost comrades-in-arms before, but she'd never lost anyone she'd loved.

“No...in a minute maybe...” Buffy took a deep breath and took control of her emotions, “...okay Zoe, you're in charge of the platoon. Make sure everyone is on the shuttles and Harm, Kandi and the L-t get an honour guard. You better recover the L-t's remains yourself. Take Chalkie White with you, she's done a recovery like this before. Make sure all the unused kit is taken back to the Jones and make sure no one loses my suit, okay? Is there anything I've forgotten?”

“Nah...” Zoe was just about to make her excuses and leave when she remembered something, “...there's some good news.”

“There is?” Buffy didn't think there could be any good news ever again now Harmony was gone, “Surprise me...”

“Your sister, she caught 'erself a Bug Brain, Psi Ops have already taken it away, looks like we're gonna 'ave to make room for a new Corporal, she did good, Buff.”

“Yeah,” Buffy forced a smile, “that's my little sis, tell her 'atta girl' from me will you?”

“You can tell me yourself,” Dawn's voice came to Buffy from over by the loading ramp.

“Atta girl!” Buffy tried to sound happy for her sister but couldn't quite pull it off, the weight of Harmony's death was still pulling on her soul.

“Aww, it was nothing,” Dawn clumped across the compartment as Zoe left to take charge of the platoon, “well not really, I mean it's not every day that someone captures a real, live, Bug Brain...so...how are you feeling Buffy?”

“Empty...” Buffy replied; she felt Dawn's armoured hand rest gently on her own, “...like my heart's been ripped out...like I can't breath...like...”

In that moment Buffy realised what the bandages were for, they soaked up the tears.

0=0=0=0

**TFCT H Jones, two days later.**

Walking briskly into the Sick Bay, Captain Gelson paused for a moment to get her bearings. Seeing Buffy sitting up in bed wearing a pair of dark glasses, she smiled and walked over to her. As she did so, she couldn't help thinking that the commander of her MI force looked mightily pissed off.

“Good morning Miss Summers, how are you today?” Gelson pulled up a stool and sat down next to Buffy's bed.

“I'm really, really bored, Captain, thank-you for asking,” Buffy replied grumpily, “I've got stuff that needs doing but the Doc won't let me out of here, can't you make him put be on light duties or something?”

“I'm sorry Buffy,” Captain Gelson replied conspiratorially, “but not even ship's captains have power of the ship's doctor.”

“Darn,” Buffy sulked; it wasn't that she wanted to do what had to be done, but... 

The families of the dead needed to be reassured that their loved ones hadn't died in vain, Buffy needed to write those 'Deeply Regrets' letters as soon as possible not only for the family's sake but for her own piece of mind. Although she knew it was stupid she felt responsible for sending at least Harm and Kandi to there deaths, she'd given the orders.

“Erm...Miss Summers?” Captain Gelson's voice called from what seemed like a long way off.

“Sorry, Ma'am?” just for a moment Buffy wondered why the Captain was calling her 'Miss Summers' instead of Sergeant, maybe she was just being polite or something.

“The real reason I came down here today, apart from seeing how you're recovering,” Gelson explained, “was to give you, what I hope will be, some good news.”

“Good news, Captain?” just at the moment Buffy could do with some good news.

“Yes,” Captain Gelson smiled down at Buffy, “After reviewing the mission tapes, the combat footage and interviewing members of your platoon, I recommended to the Fleet Admiral that you should receive a battlefield commission...I'm pleased to inform you that the Admiral confirmed my recommendation and you are now, First Lieutenant Buffy Anne Summers, MI. Congratulations Lieutenant!”

“What!?” Buffy gasped not believing her ears, “I can't be an officer...only a couple of months ago I was a corporal...no this is a mistake.”

“Are you suggesting that the admiral and myself have got it wrong, Lieutenant?” Captain Gelson chuckled, “Because I'm here to tell you, ship's Captains are demigods...and Admirals are gods so you'll just have to live with it...” Captain Gelson stood up and placed a box containing Buffy's shinny new lieutenant's pips on the table beside her bed, “...you'll be needing those, good luck, Lieutenant Summers.”

0=0=0=0

**The Terran Federation Hospital Ship, Nightingale.**

Sitting up in her bed, Kiri Chattopadhyay watched as the doctor came over to stand next to her. The woman took down Kiri's chart and studied it for a moment.

“I'm Doctor Avril Schneider, how do you feel today, Miss Chattopadhyay?”

“Call me Kiri,” Kiri replied, “and my boobs hurt.”

“Yes,” Doctor Schneider replied, “that'll be because of the build up of milk, I'll give you a shot of something to stop you lactating.”

“Thank-you...” Kiri looked down at her swollen breasts and felt like crying, she asked the question that she'd been fearing the answer to since she'd come aboard the hospital ship, “will you be able to put me back to normal?”

“Normal?” Doctor Schneider shrugged, “What is normal? We'll see about that, but first we must cleanse your system of everything the bugs put into your body. After that we can see about breast reduction surgery and repairing any other damage there might be. You realise this will take months...”

“I've waited nearly five years so a few more months won't make much difference,” Kiri explained.

“That is a good attitude,” Doctor Schneider smiled exposing very white teeth, “In the mean time I think you would benefit from talking to a councillor, they're very good these days.”

“Whatever you say, Doctor,” a hard look came to Kiri's eyes, “I want to get well as soon as possible, I have things to do.”

“Things to do?” Doctor Schneider nodded, “What sort of things, if you don't mind me asking?”

“I want to join the MI and burn bugs,” Kiri replied coldly.

0=0=0=0

**The drop room of the TFCT H Jones.**

Twenty-two female MI lifted their voices in song as Lt Buffy Summers walked out to stand facing her platoon. Today was a private ceremony, there were no Navy personnel present, not even the Captain. The Navy had left their MI comrades to grieve for their dead in private.

_Who would true valour see  
Let them come hither;   
One here will constant be,   
Come wind, come weather.   
There's no discouragement,   
Shall make her once relent,   
Her first avow'd intent,   
To be a pilgrim._

“I don't know who it was,” Buffy began once the singing stopped, “but someone once wrote; 'Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the judgement that something else is more important than fear'. That thought should keep us all focused on what we do and why we do it no matter what the circumstances. The Mobile Infantry is a family, when we lose members of our family, we come together, we grieve, then we strengthen our resolve to carry on in the spirit of those that have passed. Loss comes with the work that we have to do. Every man, every woman who joins the Mobile Infantry is well aware of that fact. It doesn't make it any easier when it happens...but it's because of their sacrifice,” Buffy gestured to the three drop capsules waiting to be sent on their last mission, “that we'll always be able to lift our heads with pride.” 

“So,” Buffy took a deep breath, “let us now commit the bodies of our fallen sisters-in-arms; Citizen Corporal Harmony Kendal, Citizen Private First Class Kandi Miller and Citizen Second Lieutenant Helga Von Neidermyer, to the vacuum of space; ashes to ashes, dust to stardust, in the sure and certain knowledge of their resurrection to eternal life amongst the stars.”

Pressing the button that started the loading and firing sequence, Buffy turned towards the three capsules being loaded into the firing tubes and saluted as the breaches of the firing tubes closed with a clang. Three muffled thuds told the MI that the capsules had been launched and the three heroes had started their final mission. Lowering her hand, Buffy turned to face her platoon once again.

“To your duties...fall out!”

0=0=0=0

**The Epilogue.**

**The TFCT H Jones, a couple of years later.**

_Out of the blue  
and into the black.  
They give you this,  
but you pay for that.  
And once you're gone,  
you can never come back.  
When you're out of the blue  
and into the black._

Every year we gain a little, you have to keep a sense of prospective.

“Time Ma'am,” my junior officer under instruction, Candidate or 'Third Lieutenant' Stephanie Hawkins looked and sounded awfully young, but she was about as harmless as one of her English, Sea-dog ancestors.

“Roger that, Steph,” I was already in my armour so we walked aft from the arming room to the drop room together. As we walked I explained the facts of life to her, “A word to the wise, Steph, stick with me but keep out of my way; have fun and use up your ordinance. If I buy the farm, you're the boss...but if you're smart you'll totally let your Papa Sierra call the shots, okay?”

“Yes Ma'am,” Steph replied looking very young and serious and I asked myself if I'd ever looked quite that young.

As we came into the drop room, my platoon sergeant called the guys to attention and saluted. I returned the compliment and said 'At ease' before starting down the line of First Section while Steph looked over Second. Next I inspected the Second Section too, checking everything on every trooper. My platoon sergeant is so much more careful than I am, so I never find anything wrong...like ever. However, it makes the guys feel better if, 'The Old Lady' scrutinizes everything...besides it's my job. Finally I stepped out into the middle of the compartment and took a deep breath.

“Another Bug Hunt, ladies, but this one's a little different; as you know, since they still hold prisoners of ours we can't use the Nova Bomb. So, this time we go down, stand on it, hold it and take it away from them. The shuttles won't be down to retrieve us; instead they'll bring down more fuel, ammo and rations. If you're captured, keep your chin up and follow the rules because you've got the whole outfit behind you...in fact you've got the entire Federation behind you; we'll come and get you come what may. The prisoners who are still alive down there are waiting, knowing that we'll show up and here we are, how we go get them. Don't forget,” I told them, “that we'll have help all around us, lots of help above us. All we have to do is worry about our little piece of it, just like we rehearsed it...and one last thing. I got a letter from Staff Sergeant Smith the other day, Zoe tells me her new legs work just fine and she expects your name to shine and so do I...okay, five minutes for the Padre.”

I felt myself begin to shake just like I've done on every drop since Harmony had died; it was a relief when I could call everyone to attention again, “Attention...by sections...port and starboard...prepare for drop!”

I was all right then as I inspected each woman into her capsule down one side, while Steph and my platoon sergeant took the other. Lastly the platoon sergeant and myself buttoned up Steph in the number three centre-line capsule. My platoon sergeant put her arm around my armoured shoulder.

“Just like a drill, Buffy,” she told me quietly.

“I know,” I stopped shaking at once, “it's the waiting, that's all.”

“Whatever,” Dawn smiled before checking her mission clock, “four minutes, shall we button up, Ma'am?”

“Yeah, like why not?” I grinned back at Dawn as I gave her a quick hug, let the Navy drop crew seal us in; the shakes didn't start again and very soon I was able to call the bridge and report, “Summers' Slayers...ready to drop!”

“One minute to go, 'Major' Summers,” Captain Church said, before adding, “Good luck, ladies. This time we take 'em!”

“Roger that, Captain,” I replied.

“Check; now how about some music while you wait?” she switched it on.

_Sometime when winds are still,  
Unexpectedly.  
Perhaps beyond this silent hill,  
A voice will call to me.  
Raise your eyes to see my world,  
Raise your voice and sing out.  
Somewhere along the road,  
Someone waits for me._

THE END.

0=0=0=0

Author's Notes: 

As usual highlight and 'right click' and it'll take you to the vids.

Buffy's eulogy for her fallen comrades was taken in part from the 'Blue Bloods' episode, 'The Life We Chose'. 

'Major' Summers is actually Captain Summers at this point. As the commander of a ship (be it a grimy trawler or a huge, gleaming starship) is always called 'Captain' whatever their rank. Any other 'Captains' aboard are bumped up a rank (Major for the Army and Marines and Commodore for the Navy) because there can only be one Captain aboard a ship. 

The Epilogue is more or less how RAH wrote it in his book, 'Starship Troopers'.

'Out of the blue and into the black...'; "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" is a song written and performed by Neil Young, this version is taken from 'The Sons of Anarchy'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be7rOyvMD14

'Who would true valour see...'; 'To be a Pilgrim' (also commonly known as 'He who would Valiant be') is the only hymn John Bunyan is credited with writing. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOPW-9mSw8Y

'Sometime when winds are still...'; 'Somewhere along the road' written and sung by Maddy Prior.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVblehWofVk

0=0=0=0


End file.
